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TOWARD NWoaical 32% wey 
INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


WHAT WAS SAID AND DONE 


AT THE FIRST 
National Interracial Conference 
HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF 


THE COMMISSION ON THE CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS 
OF THE 


FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES 
AND 


THE COMMISSION ON INTER-RACIAL COOPERATION 


CINCINNATI, OHIO 
MARCH 25-27, 1925 


PuBLISHED BY 


Tue ComMissioN ON THE CHURCH AND Racer RELATIONS, 
FrpreraL CouNcIL oF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN AMERICA 


Boox Numser ONE 


Copyricut, 1926, 
By GEORGE EDMUND HAYNES 


Printed in the United States of America by 
J. J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK 


FOREWORD 


This volume is unique in the literature on relations between white 
and Negro people of our Nation. It is not the usual report or 
proceedings of a conference, but the carefully sifted material from 
open forum discussions of more than two hundred persons about 
equally divided between the two races from scattered communities 
of nineteen states. These men and women assembled as representa- 
tives of many types of social, educational, civic, business, fra- 
ternal and religious organizations. All of them were persons with 
wide experience in dealing with racial and community problems in 
local centers. When in conference, they exchanged their information 
and experience on race problems that had confronted them in their 
communities and organizations; they recounted the methods they used 
to deal with those problems and the policies and principles which 
they had found were useful and effective. All their experience, 
whether successful or unsuccessful, relates to concrete situations and 
points to constructive ends. 

Several weeks before the Conference opened those who attended 
were furnished with a series of questions on the topics to be dis- 
cussed. These questions were designed to assist them in studying 
their own local problems and the facts involved in order that they 
might be prepared to enter fruitfully into the discussions of the 
Conference. As each topic came up it was in charge of a discussion 
committee. These committees did not attempt to restrict the dis- 
cussion but only to keep it within the scope of the subject, to sum- 
marize its results and to formulate the consensus of thought dis- 
closed, so that those who attended might carry away with them the 
substance of conclusions at which they had arrived. The discussions 
occupied nearly all the time of the Conference and were supple- 
mented only to a limited extent by prepared addresses of persons 
competent to speak on the subjects. 

These pages, then, bring together a body of fact, experience and 
reasoning that could hardly be produced in the usual methods of 
research, of book-writing, or of convention addresses. As far as 
possible the original colloquial form of the discussions has been 
retained. Whatever revision has been made has been largely that of 
eliminating irrelevant and immaterial matter, of smoothing out dic- 

lil 


FOREWORD 


tion and phrases, and of readjusting arrangement so as to make the 
book more readable. 

In an effort to keep the material as nearly in its original form 
as possible, errors, doubtless apparent to the practiced eye, have 
resulted. ‘The desire has been to bring to the reader the spirit as 
well as the letter of the Conference as far as this can be done in 
cold type, for inevitably the type record falls short in conveying the 
spirit of the Conference and in revealing the attitude of mutual 
approach, so evident in the meeting, to the many complex and 
puzzling problems which were considered. 

At the end of each chapter a summary of the discussion of the 
topic is given. A summary of suggestions and recommendations 
and the list of preparatory questions sent out before the Conference 
have been added at the end of the book. With the reports of the 
discussion committees contained in each chapter, the volume thus 
becomes especially useful for discussion groups and college classes. 

The editors have found their work a pleasant task because of its 
unique interest. They believe that these pages contain a sub- 
stantial body of valuable material on the subjects treated; that they 
constitute not only a notable contribution to the general freedom of 
thought and the method of open discussion for arriving at a better 
understanding of race problems, but they are also a definite, positive 
step “Toward Interracial Cooperation.” 


THE EDITORIAL COMMITTEE 


Mary Van Kieeck, Chairman 
Grorce E. Haynzs, Secretary 
Evart G. RoutzaAHn 
WILL W. ALEXANDER 
ForRRESTER B. WASHINGTON 
R. W. McGranaHAan 
B. F. McWitiiamMs 
W. J. WALLS 

New York City, 

February 23, 1926. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 


Tue MEANING OF THE NATIONAL INTERRACIAL CoNFER- 
ENCE—A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED 
STATES . : Sih: 


CHAPTER I 


PUBLICITY AND RAcE RELATIONS . Pie eee ee Ne: 
The Newspapers and Race Relations—Crime and the Newspapers 
—Race Relations Publicity Through the Churches—Address of 
Mr. Arthur E. Hungerford, Publicity Director, Federal Council 
of Churches—Report of the Discussion Committee—Summary of 
Discussion. 


CHAPTER II 


TBAT THAN DARACHI RELATIONS 1.) ol cp ute toc stile oe)! ire 
Colored People and Health Facilities—Public Support of Health 
Facilities—Segregation in Health Facilities—Address of Dr. 
William H. Peters, Commissioner of Health, Cincinnati—Report 
of the Discussion Committee—Summary of Discussion. 


CHAPTER III 


HLIOBRING AND AA Cie KEDATIONS fies ets toe ote are ey > 
The Effects of Housing Laws on Congestion—Landlords and Race 
—tThe Difficulty of Obtaining Mortgage Money—How Can Rents 
be Kept Down?—Better Upkeep from Landlord and from Tenant 
—FEffects of Housing on Morals and Health—Address of Mr. 
Bleecker Marquette, Executive Secretary, Better Housing League 
and Public Health Federation, Cincinnati—Report of the Dis- 
cussion Committee—An Experiment in Industrial Housing— 
Negro Residents and Neighborhood Values—Residential Segre- 
gation and Race Relations—Summary of Discussion. 


CHAPTER IV 


Tire MoveMENT TowarpD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION : 
The Interracial Aspects of the Y.W.C.A.—Students Trying to 
Solve Race Problems—Principles of Interracial Organization— 
The Interracial Movement in Kentucky—Lynchings Prevented by 
Interracial Committees—Interracial Movement in Indianapolis, 


v 


PAGE 


25 


44 


62 


vi CONTENTS 


PAGB 
Ind.—Address of Dr. Herbert A. Miller, Professor of Sociology, 
Ohio State University—Report of the Discussion Committee—In- 
terracial Problems are World-Wide—Summary of Discussion. 


CHAPTER V 


SooraL AGENCIES AND Rack RELATIONS. . . ... . 80 


The Community Viewpoint—The Negro Social Worker—Equal 
Pay for White and Negro Social Workers—Staffs of Agencies 
Should be Interracial—Address of Mr. James H. Robinson, Ex- 
ecutive Secretary, Negro Civic Welfare Association, Dept. Com- 
munity Chest and Council of Social Agencies, Cincinnati—Re- 
port of the Discussion Committee—Summary of Discussion. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE CHURCOHAND RAGE RELATIONS 1.0% ee: eee 92 


Religion at Heart of Race Problems—What is the Christian Atti- 
tude Toward Race Problems ?—How to Put Christian Principles 
in Operation—Address of Dr. Alva W. Taylor, Secretary Board 
of Temperance and Social Welfare, Church of Christ ( Disciples ) 
of Indianapolis, Ind.—Report of the Discussion Committee— 
Summary of Discussion. 


CHAPTER VII 


InpUstTRY AND RAcre RELATIONS ito) ASLO 


The Plan for the Session—Accepted Ideas—Facts Desired—Is 
Strike-Breaking an Asset?—An Experiment in Erie, Pa.—Facts 
about Chicago—New Jobs in Indianapolis, Ind.—Interracial Ac- 
tion in Dayton, Ohio—Attitude of Unions in Newark, N. J.— 
How a Factory Was Opened to Colored Girls—Increase in Col- 
ored Workers in Columbus, Ohio—A Manufacturer’s Experience 
—Personnel Problems in Chicago Plants—Recruiting for North- 
ern Mills—Women in Industry—A Negro Personnel Supervisor’s 
View—Labor Unions and Colored Workers—Address of Mr. For- 
rester B. Washington, Executive Secretary, Armstrong Associa- 
tion, Philadelphia, Pa.—Report of the Discussion Committee— 
The Eagan Plan of Employee Ownership—Summary of Discus- 
sion. 


CHAPTER VIII 


Tur Courts AnD RAéor RELATIONS: -.. ..005) >) eee a 


Negroes Form Large Proportion of Prison Inmates—The Rela- 
tion of Negroes to the Courts—Attention of Influential People 
Needed in Courts—Report of the Discussion Committee—Relation 
of Negro to the Ballot and the Courts—Summary of Discussion. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER Ix 


SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND RAcE RELATIONS . .. . 


Advantages or Disadvantages of Separate Schools—Influence of 
Mixed Schools on Race Relations—Racial Contacts and the Sep- 
arate Colleges—White and Negro Students in the Same Colleges 
—Address of Dr. John Hope, President, Morehouse College, 
Atlanta, Ga.—Report of the Discussion Committee—Summary 
of Discussion. 


EXCERPTS FROM ADDRESSES OF GENERAL SESSIONS: 
Dr. C. V. Roman . 
Dr. Will W. Alexander 
Dr. George Edmund Haynes . .. .- .- 
Dr. Sherwood Eddy . . 
SuMMARY OF LEADING SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . 


List or SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND Points Sent TO DELE- 
GATES PRECEDING CONFERENCE 


DELEGATES AND VISITORS . 


PROGRAM AND COMMITTEES ..... . 


vii 


PAGS 


150 


161 
164 
168 
173 
179 


180 
183 
189 


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TOWARD INTERRACIAL 
COOPERATION 


INTRODUCTION 


THE MEANING OF THE NATIONAL INTERRACIAL 
CONFERENCE * 


INCLUDING 


A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 


Chairman: Ladies and Gentlemen: We have gathered here this 
evening in our first National Interracial Conference—mark you, 
that emphasis is made upon the word “conference.” It is not a 
convention ; it is not to be a big speaking meeting in the large sense 
of having a great set of speeches; it is to be a speaking meeting 
insomuch as subjects will be used to get over an idea and present 
the truth—to relate experiences and so make it possible for us to 
come to whatever may seem the best in the way of solution of the 
various problems that confront us along certain lines dealing with 
our interracial question. 

You will notice this gathering is under the auspices of the Com- 
mission on the Church and Race Relations, Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America, and the Commission on Interracial 
Cooperation. Dr. George EH. Haynes is Secretary of the former 
with offices in New York, and Dr. W. W. Alexander, Secretary and 
Executive Director of the latter Interracial Commission with offices 
in Atlanta, Ga. The men and women invited and sent here by their 
respective communities have come right from the field and it is pre- 
sumed they are acquainted with those phases of the question that they 
will present to us here. 

The church of Jesus Christ in its various branches feels called upon 
to meet as we have met here this evening, and it is our prayer 

*The opening session of the first National Interracial Conference held in 
the Assembly Room of the Plum Street Temple, Cincinnati, Ohio, was called to 


apa at 7:30 P.M. Wednesday, March 25, 1925, Bishop George C. Clement, pre- 
siding. 
5 


6 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


and our hope that out of this Conference will come a new light and 
a great blessing to all the interests represented. 

I want to say that when we come to the discussion we shall have 
an open forum discussion from the floor. You are all invited to take 
part—every one who is present. I am pleased, as well as regret, 
to say that three minutes will be the limit given any of you to get 
over any proposition which you have. 

I take pleasure in presenting Dr. George E. Haynes, Secretary 
of the Commission on the Church and Race Relations, New York. 

Dr. Haynes: The response we have had is a gratifying thing to 
us. The fact is, this Conference represents a combination of re 
ligious and social interests, Jewish, Protestant and some Catholic, 
as well as white and black. 

There should be given at this opening session some statement of 
the meaning and reason for this Conference. This statement I am 
about to read is the expression from the joint committee represent- 
ing the Commission on Interracial Codperation and the Commission 
on the Church and Race Relations which joined hands in calling 
this Conference. 

The first and main objective of this National Interracial Con- 
ference has been to bring together delegates and representatives 
from local communities in order that’in conference they may ex- 
change their experience in dealing with conditions and race relations 
in these communities. In no other way could they more effectively 
and economically pass from one to the other the results of their ex- 
perience in studying their problems; in plans and programs to solve 
those problems and their experience in getting results. 

The calling of this National Interracial Conference here this 
year has come as a result of a gradual development. Since 1920 
local interracial conferences have been held in cities and towns north, 
south, east and west. There have been state conferences in a num- 
ber of southern states, notably Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North 
Carolina and Virginia. Some of the local interracial conferences in 
northern cities such as Cleveland, Toledo and Wichita, Kansas, have 
been preceded by surveys of local conditions and relations between 
white and colored groups. During the three or four years that we 
have been holding these local conferences there have been repeated 
questions and requests from different localities and from many in- 
dividuals for information about the experience, plans of organiza- 
tion and policies in other localities. 

Quite as important as the first aim of this Conference has been 
the growing need for more clearly defining and setting before the 
country the purposes of the interracial movement and the principles, 


INTRODUCTION nage 


policies and methods by which white and Negro groups all over the 
nation, where the two races are in contact in large numbers, are try- 
ing to adjust their relations by means of conference, understanding 
and good will in contrast with methods of force, violence and hostile 
contention. 

A formulation of such purposes, principles, policies and methods 
could not be made by an individual or a committee of individuals 
who might attempt to draft it, because it should summarize the 
varied experiences of hundreds of efforts by organizations and in- 
dividuals in the localities all over the nation. These two Commis- 
sions have therefore called delegates from many communities to 
recount their local experience and by this means bring out in open 
discussion what has been discovered in the matter of purposes, 
principles, policies and methods. 

A third need of the interracial movement is that the local com- 
munities, as well as the nation at large, should have clearly set 
forth the important facts about this movement. Ten years ago the 
idea that joint committees and boards of white and colored leaders 
should map out together programs of action for adjusting the rela- 
tion and taking care of the interests where they come in conflict or 
are mutual was given little weight. Only here and there were 
such experiments attempted and then in a very tentative way. To- 
day many efforts of the kind are being carried on and have been for 
several years. 

The danger now arises that communities, organizations and in- 
dividuals may lose sight of the fact that the problems consist of 
concrete relations of the two races in industry, in education, in 
church, in state, in neighborhoods and in other relations of life. 
The danger is that such a movement may become more or less theo- 
retical and generalized rather than practical and localized. It is the 
hope of the organizations that have called this Conference that the 
delegates from various states and localities may take counsel to- 
gether to keep this movement functioning in constructive, definite 
ways as in the past years. 

In the fourth place, we have talked a great deal about applying 
the ideals of brotherhood and democracy. This Conference brings 
together men and women of the two races who represent the re- 
ligious, social service and civic agencies that are making efforts 
day by day to work out these ideals in the local contacts where the 
interests of the two races meet and interact. 

In closing this statement I have the great privilege of reading a 
message from one who expresses for America and Americans, the 
impressions that these new developments in these last years have 


8 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


been making on us. Will the audience please stand while I read 
a letter from the President of the United States? 


THE WHITE HOUSE, Marcu 21, 1925. 

WASHINGTON. 

My dear Mr. Haynes: 

The evidences of developing public opinion in support of codperation 
among the racial groups in this country is a matter of satisfaction to all 
who have the nation’s best interests at heart. The development of inter- 
racial understanding through codperative plans and the action of leaders of 
the races in local communities has contributed largely to this increasing 
good will. I feel that the National Interracial Conference called by the Com- 
mission on the Church and Race Relations of the Federal Council of Churches, 
and the Commission on Interracial Codperation to bring local leaders together, 
from many states, to exchange experiences and compare policies and plans, 
is worthy of endorsement and support by all who are interested in effective 
adjustment of race relations. 

I send my wishes for success to the two Commissions and to this Inter- 
racial Conference. 

Very truly yours, 
(Signed) Carvin CooLincE. 
Mr. George E. Haynes, Secretary. 


CHAPTER I 
PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS 


Chairman: We come now to the first topic for discussion, Pub- 
icity and Race Relations. The chairman of the discussion com- 
mittee in charge is Mr. H. G. Routzahn, Associate Director, Depart- 
ment of Surveys and Exhibits, Russell Sage Foundation. 

Mr. Routzahn: Please have in mind that some methods offer de- 
sirable publicity for the activities of Negro groups which are in- 
directly of value in connection with race relations, while other 
methods we will discuss will be considered primarily for their direct 
influence upon our main subject. In our discussion we will not 
separate the two groups of methods. 

May I suggest two or three rules of the game? We have a chal- 
lenge here tonight; it is possible there will be different viewpoints 
and varied expressions on this difficult subject of publicity, so, in 
a moment, I want to start on some problem or some method and 
we hope the men and women who speak will get up and speak on 
what we want to hear, without really making a speech. 

One thing also; we will not worry too much about what is 
wrong. We all know about the wrong things; but we want to know 
what we are to do and how to do it; we want to get somewhere. 
One other word of introduction: What 1s publicity? When we talk 
about publicity we usually mean the newspapers. There are other 
ways to reach the public besides newspapers. I will not take time 
to refer to them now, but we will discuss them as they come along. 


THE NEWSPAPERS AND RACE RELATIONS 


For the first subject: What is the medium for publicity that 
offers the greatest possibility of reaching the largest number of peo- 
ple to further the betterment of race relations? I suppose you will 
all answer—newspapers. Is that the subject we would like to talk 
about first? Now will some one of you tell us your problem in 
<elation to the newspaper? 

S. Joe Brown (Des Moines, Iowa): One thing we have worked 
out in Des Moines which we think helps further race relations, we 
have secured the consent of every newspaper in our city to capitalize 

9 


10 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


the word “Negro.” We consider that quite an accomplishment in a 
city of 150,000. 

N. D. Brascher (Chicago, Ill): A little over a year ago in 
Chicago we called together the publishers of the newspapers—pub- 
lishers of all daily and racial newspapers. We didn’t have the re- 
porters, but the publishers and editors. We very frankly took up 
our various viewpoints of handling racial news. The editors of 
one or two papers—particularly the Chicago Evening American— 
were much impressed with what we stated about cutting out refer- 
ences to race. He went back to his office and gave instructions that 
in no criminal story should the race of the individual be used. If 
it was John Smith who committed a crime, that was all that would 
be used, and that policy has prevailed ever since. I am happy to 
say the inspiration for suggesting that to them came to me from 
Cleveland, where two papers, The Plain Dealer and The Press have 
carried the same rule. 

Dr. H. A. Muller (Ohio State University) : What about reference 
to the word “white” as used in Negro papers? 

Mr. Brascher: The same rule should hold good there. 

Dr, Miller: Suppose it refers to some commendable thing? 
What then? 

Mr. Brascher: We would be happy to have them publish it to 
the world. 

G. W. Thompson (Akron, Ohio): We have been on the war- 
path on this line for a number of years and have discovered, to my 
surprise, that the use of the small “n” is not so much racial dis- 
crimination as it is due to a lack of education. “Negro” is used not 
as the correlative of “Caucasian,” but of “white.” You will say it is 
wrong, but that is the stand taken, as I found, in the Atlantic 
Monthly, where the word “Negro” is used with the small “n.” There- 
fore, that problem is not so much racial as it might be literary. 

Mr. Routzahn: What other problem is there in connection with 
the newspapers? Mr. Brascher, was that effort you spoke of brought 
about by the Interracial Commission, or how? 

Mr. Brascher: By the Civic Committee of the Appomattox Club. 

Mr. Routzahn: Is there any other situation to be reported in re- 
gard to relations with the newspapers? 

C. T. Greene (Pittsburg, Pa.): I would like to know how far 
action in regard to the word “negress” has been taken? In our city 
we have had a great deal of comment in the newspapers, referring 
to our women as “negresses,” and the intelligent Negro of Pitts- 
burg resents that very much. I would like to know if in spelling 


PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS 11 


the word “Negro” in capital letters, they have found some way of 
referring to our women in different terms? 

Mr. Brascher: We have found in handling this particular phase 
of journalism we can accomplish a great deal by going to the editors 
themselves. That means South as well as North. We have had 
some wonderful results in the South; the editors are open to reason 
—most of them. In my experience, if you can convince them, 
they will not only cut out the term “negress,” but in a few sec- 
tions of the South, they refer to the women of our race as “Mrs.” 
—not so many, but that will come, too. Also they will give you 
the preference of calling the group Afro-American, Colored, or 
Negro, or spelling it any way you want. 


ORIME AND THE NEWSPAPERS 


Bishop Clement: My attention was called some time ago, in 
a meeting similar to this, to a fact very discouraging to some of us 
present. It was that where the great dailies, especially in the South, 
have more and more desisted from publishing Negro crimes on the 
front page, great weekly Negro papers have taken advantage of that, 
so that they fill their papers with crimes of our people. 

Chandler Owen (New York): I happen to be one who differs 
very materially on the question of crime. I think we should have 
advertising of crime in America on the front pages. I believe it 
is important that information about crime should be broadcast over 
the nation; it is well to know that murderers are at large and 
bank bandits infesting a city, just the same as knowing about small- 
pox. If they know, people become alert and inquire about efforts 
to suppress crime as well as disease. Since crime is nothing but 
a social disease, we ought to assume the same attitude as toward 
any other form of disease. I think the Negro and white papers should 
continue to publish crimes. 

H. T. Steeper (Des Moines, Iowa): I am not an editor. I have 
almost exactly the reverse opinion from that just given. I hope 
the Negro papers of America will not follow the lines of feeling of my 
friend and use the front pages for crimes as much as they are doing. 
I am frank to say, the field of education, authors’ clubs and other 
organizations of America do not want to herald crime. Does adver- 
tising it stop it? Those young men, Leopold and Loeb in Chicago, 
throve on the thrills they got out of reading of murders. We have 
to get a better diet. I wish we could get the man who lives 30 years 
with his wife without trouble, pays the bills and doesn’t come home 
drunk—get him on the front page and some other stuff like that. 


12 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Mr. Routzahn: We can talk back and forth all evening on this 
problem, because it is like some other problems with which we are 
familiar. ‘Therefore, I think we will let the crime page problem 
alone for the time being. Is there some other idea? 

F. B. Washington (Philadelphia, Pa.): Not so long ago an 
editorial writer for the Philadelphia Public Ledger asked me for a 
short timely article on some phase of the race question. There 
was considerable unemployment among colored women, and, there- 
fore, I gave them a little article in which I pointed out that it 
was unfair for white women to object to the employment of colored 
women in other occupations than domestic service. Colored women 
ought to be allowed to get the same joy out of life which comes from 
doing that which they want to do as white women. There had 
been some objection to colored women breaking a strike and I said, 
if that was the only way they could get economic independence, I 
didn’t blame them. My article was not published and I was in- 
formed that the article had been set up in type and the writer 
who solicited it wanted to print it because it was snappy, but the 
editor-in-chief said it was controversial and he could not eos any- 
thing controversial. I wonder if much else of the Negro’s side of the 
race problem is squelched “because it is controversial.” 

Chairman: Has any one an answer to that problem or a way to 
work it out? Has any one had any other experience in calling on 
the newspapers ? 

Dr. W. H. Jernagin (Washington, D. C.): My experience with 
some editors in Washington in matters of that kind, is that they 
find they have to jar the people. I think this matter comes back 
to the larger matter that even the church people—many of them— 
will not read papers unless they can get something exciting out of 
them. It is a money-making question with the newspapers. ‘They 
said to me, if I could get the members of my own church to read 
the papers regularly when they didn’t have those things in them, 
it would be an interesting experiment. They said church folks will 
not read a colored or white paper unless there is something exciting 
in it. 

R. B. Eleazer (Atlanta, Ga.): I just want to say a word on 
what Mr. Brascher said about conferring with editors of southern 
papers, which I think strictly true. I have here the story of a 
meeting of editors of the leading papers of Virginia, who were 
asked to get together and discuss the viewpoints of the interracial 
groups. Nothing was formulated at the meeting, but afterwards on 
their own account they formulated a statement and signed it and 
gave it to us to do with as we pleased. I took that statement 


PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS 13 


throughout two or three states; every editor in New Orleans signed 
it and every editor in Memphis signed it and the Mississippi groups 
signed it—practically all the North and South Carolina groups 
signed it, and it seems to be representative of the attitude of the 
editors throughout that section. I do not know of anything better 
that you can do than bring your viewpoint to the attention of the 
editors, and make them see what you have in mind. 

Dr. Alexander: In one place, I have a man who sells advertis- 
ing to the newspapers and he is constantly on guard. Whenever 
they seem to be violating good taste, this man, who spends a good 
deal of money advertising, calls their attention to it. In two other 
places, two college professors have as their job to watch the editors 
constantly. It takes a great deal of patience and a great deal of 
time to change the habits of newspapers. If we use our imagination 
a little as to how newspapers are made up, you will realize one visit 
alone will not do much. 

Dr. Haynes: Is there any delegate from St. Louis? 

Miss Bertha B. Howell (St. Louis, Mo.) : Not long ago we con- 
sulted the editors of denominational papers. We were inclined to agree 
with them that we should give editors positive material on the out- 
standing achievements of the leaders of the colored people, and that 
is better publicity than simply suppressing the undesirable material. 
The positive effort is more important, but the difficulty of securing 
that material was the thing we have been up against. All these 
denominational papers want is good material. Local material is not 
sufficient. We really ought to have a national clearing house for such 
material in order to make it effective. 

Dr. Haynes: We have been working on that problem of a na- 
tional clearing house, but we are limited by the limitations of our 
purse. If you will help us find the people who have the money, Mr. 
Eleazer is quite ready and has quite a bit of machinery ready to put 
that in motion. Our recent experiences with religious papers is that 
they get a great deal of stuff, more than they use, and the daily 
press uses material of the same kind more readily than the religious 
papers. 

Rev. J. W. Robinson (Clarksburg, W. Va.): We had an experi- 
ence not long ago with one of our newspapers in Clarksburg. Our 
church gave a contest and I sent an account of it to one of our 
daily papers. The program of the contest and announcement came 
out very nicely with nice headlines. But, in the evening paper 
on the evening the contest was to be, another paper published a 
paragraph headed, “Such and such given by pickaninnies”—referring 
to them as “babies and pickaninnies.” My people didn’t like that. 


14 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Of course, I went to see the editor the next morning. He informed 
me that was put in without his noticing it until after it was done. 
However, he made an apology for having permitted it to come out 
in his paper. That shows, if we go to them properly, we will get over 
our point of view. 

Dr. H. A. Miller (Columbus, Ohio): Why do you expect this 
editor to take a codperative view? Just on a humanitarian basis? 
I think, as long as prejudice prevails, you cannot expect so much, 
but, if you have a large number of readers of a certain paper or 
advertisers are giving something to that paper, you have a definite 
impression to bring to the papers. Yesterday I went to one of the 
editors of a Columbus paper on interracial matters and it was 
brought out that his paper was one quite largely read by colored 
people. His attitude was very codperative. That ought not be left 
out of the discussion. | 

Dr, Alexander: One of the editors said to me, “Mr. Alexander, 
although we do not publish your stuff, the fact that you are sending 
the stuff with your viewpoint, gives us a new idea. Your material 
has good in it.” So, although we do not get it in the columns all 
the time, we are talking to the editors and little by little there is a 
change in the attitude of the newspapers, making it better. 


RACE RELATIONS PUBLICITY THROUGH THE CHURCHES 


Mr. Routzahn: That is very good. We should learn more how to 
be liberal. What is the next avenue we should take up? We have 
an idea that the church is the thing that touches many of us. How 
many here had a program on Race Relations Sunday? 

There is a plan and program that was offered by the Federal 
Council of Churches for us on that Sunday. That is available now 
and there will be a new one for 1926, if you wish to work up a Race 
Relations Sunday. What else have you to suggest in relation to 
using your churches to spread the idea for better race relations? 

Dr. Alexander: One Sunday when we were starting to go for a 
drive after Sunday School, my boy said, “I don’t want to go home 
today; I want to stay at the church.” I said, “What possesses you? 
Why do you want to stay in church? You never did before.” He 
said, “I don’t want to stay in church, I want to go downstairs where 
they are telling stories out of the Peanut book.” They happened 
to have a story book about Negroes who have achieved; it is called 
“Handicapped Winners.” The book is covered with designs of 
peanuts. They are gathering the children together and telling them 
stories of Negroes who are “handicapped winners.” 


PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS 15 


Mr. Routzahn: We have an announcement from a Wisconsin min- 
ister who devoted two Sundays to something on the American Negro’s 
problems and his possibilities. On one evening a sermon was de- 
livered and on the other an entertainment given—an evening in 
Dixie with music and reading. He has a list of a dozen books 
which he brings to the attention of his congregation, with which we 
should all be familiar. Are there any other suggestions about 
churches ? 

G. R. Arthur (Chicago, Ill.): The Church Federation of Chi- 
cago started a series of studies of some of our difficulties. Dr. 
Haynes’ book was studied. They brought into the classes a lot 
of white and colored men of the city who discussed the problems 
as they came up. 

Dr. B. F. McWilliams (Toledo, Ohio): Six months ago, a mem- 
ber of our Interracial Committee proposed that we write a letter to 
the pastors of the churches in the city, suggesting the interchange 
of pulpits between white and colored ministers, and named five min- 
isters in particular with whom it might be profitable to make this 
exchange. 

Thereupon, five of us were invited to exchange pulpits in the city 
and three of us responded to that call, I being one of the three. 
I exchanged pulpits with Dr. A. A. Stockdale, First Congregational 
Church in that city, and I received thirteen letters of commendation 
after that service. From that day up to this, I, and others of our 
committee, have been invited to speak on several occasions, and 
groups of our people have been asked to serve. We have given pro- 
grams from time to time in the different churches of the city. 

G. W. Thompson (Akron, Ohio): We have done practically the 
same thing as in Toledo. 

S. A. Allen (Boston, Mass.): The Boston Federation of 
Churches has arranged for five colored men to speak over the radio 
on various questions. 

S. Joe Brown: I want to say the same thing. 

A. H. Martin (Cleveland, Ohio): The Federated Churches of 
Cleveland have adopted the plan of sending out white and colored 
speakers throughout the city from time to time in order to cultivate 
the habit among the colored churches of receiving contact and in- 
structions from the white ministers. Many white churches do the 
same with colored speakers. We think it is having a fine reaction. 

Mr. Routzahn: Here are a few suggestions as to other forms of 
publicity: Dialogues, tableaux, monologues can be used—something 
which would present an idea in a new way. Why not give at the 
women’s clubs readings from some of the colored writers? Have 


16 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


contests and story telling and story reading. So many libraries have 
story-telling hours and there is plenty of material which could be 
used for these. Pageants also, such as Milestones as given in Wichita, 
are excellent. 

Dr. E. N. Oxley (Cincinnati, Ohio): We have dramatics in our 
own church, as our church has looked upon this question seriously. 
We have a department of dramatics in connection with our settle- 
ment school of music. We work for all the boys and girls in this 
community—from any section of the city. Last summer, we gave 
Joseph in Egypt, with an Oriental background—with people from 
each colored church. We think it a definite contribution toward 
the cultural education and the life of the city. 

Rev. Clayton B. Wells (Wichita, Kan.): The race pageant 
Milestones was a very marvelous performance—the biggest thing 
Wichita ever has had, and we expect great things to come as the 
result of the pageant. One of the finest things in connection with 
it was Miss Crogman’s appearance in sundry places addressing the 
audiences. One of the greatest achievements was the conquest of 
the intermediate and high school grades. It went up against a 
pretty stiff prejudice. We think great things will come of her 
pageant. 

Chairman: We shall now have the address of Mr. Arthur E. Hun- 
gerford, Publicity Director, Federal Council of Churches, on Pub- 
heity and Race Relations. 

Mr. Hungerford then spoke in part as follows: 


Publicity is a two-edged sword, cutting both ways. Doing great good if 
properly used, it creates havoc when used by the inexperienced or when the 
cause for which it is exerted is unsound. Publicity is a comparatively new 
form of education. But it must not be confused with theatrical press agent 
stunts or with one-sided propaganda. 

By publicity is meant the presentation of facts. They may be dramatized 
a bit. They may be given simply, but in whatever form they are presented, 
they must make men think; not necessarily the way we think, but so that 
they use their brains to make a decision in view of the facts. 

In creation of interracial good will, publicity should and will have a great 
part. This is especially true in relation to the daily press. Much of the 
reduction in the lynching evil has been brought about through the creation 
of public opinion against mob murder by the daily press—particularly in 
the South. 

Many of us find fault with the press—some for its headlines, some for its 
treatment of crime, some for its apparent lack of interest and codperation in 
the things in which we are vitally interested and which seem to us to be of 
the utmost importance to the community, to the Nation or to the world. For 
a good many things for which we condemn the press, we ourselves are to 
blame. All of us are interested in racial relations, and yet how many of us 
have ever tried to tell the managing editor or the city editor of our local 
papers about the matter? Have we ever given the reporter who tried to get a 
story a fair chance to secure it correctly? 

Let us for a moment go back of the impersonal press—to the men who 
control it—the editors and the reporters. No pastor, no social worker, clings 


PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS 17 


more faithfully to his conception of right and wrong than reporter and editor 
hold to the ethics of the press. The reporter and the editor, with but few 
exceptions, have as their ideal the presentation of news as they see it— 
honestly and fearlessly. To my mind there is less danger from the papers 
that print too much news than from those that suppress news—for one reason 
or another. 

Most papers are intellectually honest and print the news as its staff sees 
it. They want to be fair, they want to be honest, they want to help good 
causes, to work for goodwill. The fearless, honest newspaper, even when mis- 
taken, is an asset to a community. Now, sometimes papers do not help race 
relations and other good movements of the utmost importance because we 
who are interested do not take them into our confidence. We do not take 
the trouble to tell the editors and reporters of their significance. Oftimes 
we think the paper is hostile in its treatment of racial news when it is merely 
that the paper is following a custom or that the editor has not thought about 
the matter. 

Let every one who is vitally interested in creating goodwill and under- 
standing between the white and colored peoples help his local paper realize 
their importance. We do not take pains enough to help the Press. Frequently, 
we have a big meeting or do an important piece of work and think of every- 
thing but the local paper and what its help would mean to us. Call on the 
editor and city editor and ask their codperation in giving the news of not 
only what you are doing but also of the way they handle the news of the 
many things that enter into race relations in the community. Write to them 
from time to time. 

Do not expect them to editorialize their news columns. Papers will 
undoubtedly from time to time express editorial views on the matter, but the 
chief value of the press is to tell the news of what is being done, of the 
hopes and ideals concerning race relations and of its handling of articles that 
may create ill will because of lack of care. Now, we cannot expect the papers 
to give news space unless our work is vital, unless we are accomplishing 
something. News space is strictly limited. The daily paper has to cover the 
doings of the world every twenty-four hours. Every day it throws away many 
times more news than goes into the columns. 

When a reporter is assigned to cover a meeting or special work, take time 
to help him get what he wants in his way. We must go into details if he 
desires and give him the information, if possible, when he wants it. Our 
meeting or work may be but one of a half dozen assignments for the evening. 
Many times a reporter is asked by a busy executive, in the press of work, 
to come later; but many things may keep him from coming back. By failing 
to respond to the needs of the papers, we lose more news space than we 
imagine. 

Advance copy of addresses and news are always welcome. Unfortunately, 
many of us in our advance material leave out the best news from the editor’s 
point of view. We acquire the art of giving the news facts only with practice. 
All newspapers face mechanical difficulties. The various pages of the paper 
are locked on a scheduled time. The different editions must go to press on 
the minute. Delay means a missing of trains and mails and the disappointment 
of thousands of readers. So the paper must go to press on time, even if your 
story or my story of the utmost importance is left out because we are a few 
minutes late. One advantage of giving news material to papers promptly 
is that frequently it gets on an “early page’ which is locked up, not to be 
disturbed again and so the story as it is called goes through all editions. 

Our particular story or article must compete against the world for space. 
Race relations are news when properly presented. All efforts to bring about 
goodwill between various races and national groups in this country are real 
news. Do not confuse news, however, with propaganda. Views or facts about 
race relations, at times may not be news, but if made in a statement by a 
man whose judgment is recognized in the community and who stands for what 
is best, or by a reputable organization, it becomes news. 


18 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


A great field is open in the matter of education or news publicity in race 
relations. The Japanese question has focused light upon the dealings of the - 
white and yellow races. The migration of the Negro to the North and West 
has given added interest in the doings of the white and colored peoples. Be- 
cause of such things and because an increasing number of persons are in- 
terested in creating good will and fair play, race relations have a greater 
news value than ever before. 

A curious cycle is this thing of news and educational publicity. A small 
group interested in a piece of vital work takes some action which creates 
news. The publication of their activities creates wider interest, and a wider 
circle of workers. This in turn adds to the news value of the movement, and 
so it spreads until the idea has become generally accepted and the need for 
aggressive work disappears, then it is no longer news. The element of fight 
or achievement is what makes news. Prohibition is still news because an 
aggressive minority has prevented real prohibition. Once we have real 
prohibition with the law enforced so it is impossible for any one to obtain 
alcoholic liquors, the public, even the irreconcilables, will regard the matter as 
settled and it will no longer be news. News is simply that which interests 
the greatest number of readers. 

Publicity has its place in creating good race relations. Like the genil 
in the bottle, its aid is not to be lightly revoked. Guard it cautiously. Use 
it wisely. Publicity is a precious gem of great worth. It must be honest 
to be preserved. The searchlight of publicity, while it helps show the way, 
also reveals imperfections and faults. This also is valuable, but most of us 
do not realize it at that painful time when our mistakes are exposed. 

We must not expect publicity to solve all problems or to take the place 
of hard work. We would not expect advertising to make money for a store 
that did not have the article advertised for sale. Nor can we expect publicity, 
or the mere publication of our views or beliefs, to remedy conditions. 

Let us recognize the value of publicity, the ethics and ideals of newspaper 
men, and the fact that we must play our part. Let us recognize that it is 

ossible that sometime we may be mistaken and allow others to differ from us. 
fany great causes have been lost because those interested believed that they 
alone possessed wisdom, and that their plans to the most minute detail had 
to be accepted absolutely. Above all things, let us seek to present the facts 
so that the other fellow may think and then make his decision—whether it is 
our way or not. We must realize that as a rule when the public has the 
facts, it acts rightly and justly. 


Chairman: Mr. Brascher will give the first part of the report of 
our Discussion Committee on Publicity. 
Mr. Brascher made the following report: 


REPORT OF DISCUSSION COMMITTEE ON PUBLICITY 


There are four points that I will bring out—three of them have been 
discussed already, and one is a mere suggestion I want to lay before you in 
order that you may react upon it. 

The first point brought out by Dr. Alexander, Director Commission on 
Interracial Codperation, Atlanta, Georgia, is with reference to the repeated 
visits to the editors, to getting their attitude to be a little more cordial. 
He says he finds people go to the editor once and if they are not able to 
persuade him, that they don’t go back again. The same thing holds true 
with visiting the editors with regard to changing their policies. Sometimes 
they are changed or will change their policy to get rid of you, but other times 
you must keep at them. 

On the subject of letters to editors, Mr. Forrester B. Washington of 





PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS 19 


Philadelphia brought out a fine point. There could be a great campaign on 
sending letters to editors. I know it is the policy of the Chicago Tribune 
to be guided very largely by the comments they get from subscribers o 
readers on a given subject. That is true of almost every publication. 

Another phase of the subject of publicity is pictures. We have moving 
pictures and still pictures. Night before last in Carnegie Hall, New York, 
there was a fine demonstration of the practicability of moving pictures in 
bringing to the people of the white group knowledge of what Negroes are 
doing. Some four thousand people in a great gathering were greatly im- 
pressed by what they saw going on in Tuskegee and other sections of the South. 
You can tell many things through pictures; pictures are the universal 
language. 

We discussed in our committee today and with some friends who are 
delegates and visitors, the subject of a publicity foundation. We have all 
sorts of foundations and it occurred to us that it might be suggested to you 
and you could think it over. The plan coming to our minds was a foundation, 
properly financed, that would be a clearing house for general publicity, one 
in which the various organizations, North and South, interested in the racial 
adjustments, would have some share in directing. 


k. B. Eleazer (Member of the Discussion Committee): We 
have no further report, except a few other lines in publicity which 
we have found effective in working with college groups. One of 
the most effective things we have been able to do in the South has 
been to send colored speakers around—men like Dr. Fisher of Fisk 
University and Dr. Carver of Tuskegee—through the southern col- 
leges to speak to white student groups. The transformation in the 
viewpoint has been remarkable in many cases. They have been 
introduced to an entirely new type of colored people, who give them 
a new conception of the capabilities of colored people. 

Then we have classes as a part of the curriculum in southern 
universities. We have also organizations of interracial student groups, 
where white and colored students sit down from week to week or 
month to month and discuss viewpoints. As an illustration, we had 
a question on the higher education of the Negro raised by one 
student and another said he didn’t believe in it; that it was a mis- 
take. The group said, “Very well, where are your facts; bring 
them in on paper and we will get colored students to bring in 
papers telling why. they should have it.” At the next meeting, the 
white man said he had no paper. He said, “When I began to 
study it out and place my facts, I had no grounds to stand on; my 
viewpoint is entirely changed.” 

Sending colored singers through the colleges has been effective. 
We have plans formulated for the organization in every woman’s 
society, in some 8 or 10 denominations, of interracial committees 
and a program of study for those committees, including a personal 
investigation of the conditions in the Negro homes and churches. 
There is need of certain courses in our public schools. We think, 


20 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


beginning with the grammar school, there is need of the introduction 
of a history course dealing with the part the Negro has played in 
American history, and an appreciation of what the Negro has con- 
tributed to the development of the country. 

And then the effort to reach the teachers. We think a great 
deal of race bitterness begins in the small children. Teachers could 
teach the right racial attitude, and if so, we could get rid of the 
trouble right at the very root. 

We think of having more concerts—of having more artists like 
Roland Hayes. More Negro music and the dramatic character de- 
velopment of the Negro would be tremendously effective. Special 
historical occurrences may be used as story material to be sent to 
the papers in your community. 

Mr. Brascher: I want to add this one statement that we do 
not want to forget the fact that what Mr. Eleazer has spoken of 
are conditions that are now obtained in the South. I am certain 
there is much that can be done for awakening the North in the 
matter of publicity in race relations. : 


DISCUSSION OF REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PUBLICITY 


Chairman: We cannot go into details and discuss all the things 
suggested, but might take a minute or two for any questions. 

Dr. Haynes: I want to call attention to the fact that Mr. 
Eleazer mentioned something about the contact of the student groups. 
We have here a delegation of students. A student from Vander- 
bilt is here who can tell of the actual operations of the colored 
and white groups in the South. 

Ernest L. Ackley (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.) : 
The Nashville Student Forum, after making a rather superficial 
study of things in Nashville, published a report, and financed send- 
ing it to all the Protestant ministers, to editors of papers, and to 
heads of the civic clubs of Nashville. The report contains not only 
a statement of facts and conditions in Nashville and the needs, but 
also a list of ten books we thought should be read on the subject. 
Although we do not know that any great amount of difference has 
been made by the report, yet we have received some very interesting 
replies from people in the city who have felt it was worth while. 

Mr. Routzahn: Where can that report be secured? 

Mr. Ackley: From me, any time by mail. I have a few copies 
of the report with me to which you are welcome while they last. 

Mr. Routzahn: How about classes for studying interracial prob- 
lems? Where can I get a course of study for those classes? 


PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS 21 


Mr. Eleazer: One has just come from the press. Dr. T. J. 
Woofter, Jr., who is here, prepared it at the request of the teachers 
of a good many of the courses in southern schools. It is called The 
Basis of Racial Adjustment. 

Dr. Haynes: The Missionary Education Movement, 150 Fifth 
Avenue, New York, is doing more in the publication of literature 
than any one that I know. This agency is the official delegate body 
of practically all the Home and Foreign Missionary Societies of 
all the Protestant churches in America. It has published in two 
succeeding years three study courses each year. ‘They published 
them in editions of from ten to fifty thousand. 

Mr. Routzahn: Here is a question in the minds of most of us: 
Where can we write for or where can we read about the new things 
coming out? 

Dr. Haynes: Write either the Commission on the Church and 
Race Relations or the Commission on Interracial Codperation. We 
usually give the reviews of all books that are worth while in this 
field in the Information Service of the Federal Council of Churches. 
The Information Service goes out weekly and costs $2.00 a year. 
There are seven special race relations numbers a year. 

Mr. Routzahn: What I want us to get in the habit of doing is 
this: When we are not sure of our information, let us write Atlanta 
or New York. The more questions we ask them, the oftener they 
will write; and the more insistent we are in getting what we want, 
the more likely it will be they will give us what we want. 

There is another thing I want to bring up and that is com- 
munity participation. It is not possible in some places, but in some 
places it is. Suppose there is an exposition or a celebration— 
centennial or féte—is there a chance for the Negro to be repre- 
sented? Is there a chance in an exposition or fair for him to show 
the products of Negro skill? Four of the state fairs in the South, 
for the first time this year included exhibits from Negro agricul- 
tural schools. In one fair they put in a tent, all handled by Negroes, 
and that proved to be the most interesting point in the fair. As a 
result of that experience, Memphis will probably build a colored 
building next year, a colored building connected with the fair. 

Mr. Washington: There will be the Sesquicentennial in Phila- 
delphia next year, and we want to start preparing for it. I am 
inviting this Conference to come there next year. We will have 
a Negro exhibit that we already have in preparation. A Negro 
architect is designing it. 

Mr. Routzahn: Another thing: When the Governor or some 
other distinguished person comes to town, try to get them to come 


22 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


to your settlement or to some other center of Negro activity. Watch 
for the visitors. One thing about distribution. When you get out 
your annual report or anything in connection with your work, be 
sure that certain people and institutions get it. Negro papers should 
be in historical libraries. I don’t know if that will help race rela- 
tions much, but we don’t want to miss a chance. Let the Governor 
get a copy of your annual report. Make a careful study of the 
community in order to make sure that every one who might be use- 
ful gets your material; also see that libraries and reading rooms re- 
ceive it. Get your local public library to have a display of books 
on the subject for general reading and special studies, books by 
Negroes and about Negroes. 

Rev. P. C. Childs (Erie, Pa.): We have succeeded in getting into 
the public library several books—the Negro Year Book and some 
others. 

Mr. Routzahn: How are we to do all this? First of all, let us 
pick out one thing we have heard tonight and then get two or three 
people together and decide how to work it out. It may take a week 
or it may take six months, but let us make a good job of it. Don’t 
let us think we must do all the things or we never will do any- 
thing. We ought to have a list of local organizations and clubs and 
lodges, begin to study out what we are going to do, and go after 
them. Along with that should be a list of the useful people; peo- 
ple who are interested or people who are influential or who may 
speak helpfully and favorably; people who meet the right people who 
might lend you things; people who might help you in getting up 
displays. I am going to my seat, but I just want to say we haven’t 
begun to talk about what you can do through publicity. 

Mr. Brascher: I was about to suggest that as a member of the 
Discussion Committee, as far as I am concerned, I am willing to take 
home the last words of our Chairman to the effect that the things 
you have heard here tonight you will put into practice. As a 
matter of fact, publicity in any development of race adjustment is, 
you may say, 95% of that development. In other words, John 
Wanamaker said at one time, if he had one hundred dollars and was 
going into business he would put $95.00 in publicity and the other 
$5.00 in stock. The publicity man of any organization has the entrée 
to all the high moguls; he is the man who knows the psychology, 
and that is as true in race relations as in any other field. I feel you 
have benefited by what we have brought to you, and that we thank 
Mr. Routzahn for the fine manner in which he has handled this 
publicity program tonight. 


PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS 23 


SUMMARY OF THE DISCUSSION ON 
I. PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS * 


A. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES 


i 
2. 


Difficulty of obtaining publicity space for favorable Negro matters. 
Negro “news” almost all of an unfavorable character; over stress on 
crimes whose Negro origin is emphasized; general write-ups of a sort 
to arouse amusement, ridicule or hostility. 


B. EviIpENCE oF PROGRESS 


if 


9. 


Newspapers changing attitude in some instances. 

(a) Special designation of Negro crimes cut out by Chicago American, 
Cleveland Press and Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

(b) The word “Negro” always capitalized by Des Moines papers. 

(c) Negro affairs given more attention by some papers. 

Movies are educating general public to a knowledge of Negro accom- 
plishments. (Tuskegee in action, etc. ) 

Negro radio programs are being given and well received. 

Ohio State University has given Negro student programs. 

Boston reports broadcasting by several colored men. 

Negro speakers and singers through the colleges and before the general 
public favorably received and Roland Hayes has done much to win 
white consideration for his race. 

Study groups, sometimes of mixed attendance, are valuable publicity 
channels. 

Chicago Church Federation series estimates a mixed attendance of 
300,000. Eight or ten denominations report interracial study in progress 
in their women’s societies. 

Church publicity. Sermons and materials upon the Negro and his 
contribution. : 

Interchange of pulpits between whites and Negroes -reported from 
various cities: Detroit, Toledo, Akron and Cincinnati. One white 
pastor received thirteen letters of approval following a Negro preacher 
in his pulpit. 

Public libraries and other information centers prepare lists of Negro 
books and materials. 

Expositions and exhibits are including Negro representation. 

Chicago had a Negro Exposition several years ago. 

Memphis has a building for colored exhibits at its fair ground. 
Distinguished visitors when in the city should be shown Negro work, 
centers, etc., as well as white. 


* Made by Professor Harle Hdward Eubank, Department of Sociology, Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati. 


CHAPTER II 
HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS * 


Dr. George E. Haynes: The presiding officer this morning, as 
you will see by your program, is Miss M. Edith Campbell, Director 
of the Vocational Bureau, Department of Education, Cincinnati, and 
the meeting is now in her hands. 

Miss M. Edith Campbell: It is unnecessary to say what a great 
privilege it is to have a part in this very interesting and most unusual 
conference, and I am most happy to have this share in the work 
going on in Cincinnati this week. It is unnecessary to tell you, also, 
as one Cincinnatian, how very glad we are to have you here and 
what a great privilege we consider it to have Cincinnati selected for 
this conference. Is Rev. Dr. Williams here? (Prayer by Dr. 
W. H. Williams.) 

We will now proceed to the discussion of our topic on Health and 
Race Relations. We will first have the Open Forum Discussion. 
Mr. Franklin O, Nichols, Associate Educational Director of the 
American Social Hygiene Association, Chairman of the Discussion 
Committee, will introduce the topic and then we will proceed with 
the open forum discussion. 

Mr. Franklin O, Nichols: I think that the delegates know pretty 
well the method of procedure, which is this: that if there are any 
problems that the delegates have back in their communities, they 
are to present those problems here for discussion and for considera- 
tion. I want you to feel free in asking any questions or presenting 
anything that you may wish to have discussed. I am going to ask you 
to do it immediately so the Discussion Committee may have sufficient 
time to analyze those questions and to analyze the discussion and give 
you the benefit of our experience in dealing with such matters. 

Miss Campbell: We are now ready to hear from any one from 
the floor who cares to ask questions or to take part in the discussion 
of the question on the relation of Health and Race Relations. 


COLORED PEOPLE AND HEALTH FACILITIES 


J. H. Chase (Youngstown, Ohio): We have baby clinics at 
Youngstown, taking care of both white and colored children, and 


* Session: Thursday, March 26, 1925, 9 a.m. Miss M. Edith Campbell, Cin- 
cinnati, O., presiding. 
24 








HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 25 


I think we have been quite successful in reducing the number of 
infant deaths. 

Miss Constance Fisher (Cleveland, Ohio): In Cleveland we have 
a number of tuberculosis clinics for the care of those who are 
tubercular. In one of those districts where there is much congestion 
we have a special one to take care of the extra number of colored 
children and also a diagnostic clinic to take care of nervous dis- 
eases; and all the clinics of the city and the hospitals are open to 
colored and white. 

Mr. Nichols: May I suggest in this discussion that we not only 
get reports as to the things that they are doing in those communities 
but the kind of problems, interracial problems, that they might have 
in connection with these facilities. 

Mr. Childs: We have a tuberculosis society to handle our tuber- 
culosis cases. It is working along that line and handling these cases 
very well. We have baby clinics and also clinics for white and 
colored alike. 

Miss Campbell: Wave you any particular problems there in the 
handling of that? 

Mr. Childs: It seems to me they are working out very nicely now, 

Dr. Jernagin: I want to say that at Washington we have the 
Tuberculosis Hospital that looks after all of our cases of both races, 
and also a Children’s Hospital. 

N. B. Allen (Columbus, Ohio): I want to read a report con- 
cerning the death rate in the state of Ohio just recently gotten out. 
It is from the Columbus Citizen, a daily paper of Columbus: * 


*A colored man has thirty-four chances to be murdered to a white man’s 
one. He has a five-to-one better (or worse) chance than the white man to 
live at all. And a colored baby has only one-third as good a chance as a 
white baby to live through infancy. 

These revelations of excessive mortality among Negroes are contained in 
a report issued by I. R. Plummer, State Registrar of Vital Statistics. 

Among an estimated Negro population of 231,151 in Ohio, 4,786 deaths 
were reported in one year. The Negro death rate was 23.3 per thousand 
compared to a white death rate of only 11.8. 

Out of each 100,000 Negroes, 350 died from tuberculosis compared to 76 
among an equal number of whites. 

Victims of homicide were 85 per 100,000 among the Negroes and 2% 
among the whites. 

Among each 100,000 Negroes 163 died in infancy compared to 61 baby 
deaths among the whites. 

A discouraging revelation is that while the Negro population increased 
only 8% in three years, the death rate increased 30%.” 


The problem is getting the people, our people, to use these various 
health facilities, and possibly some of us have had larger experience 


* Columbus Citizen, March 18, 1925. 


26 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


than some of the rest of us in getting the colored people to use these 
various facilities. 

Miss Campbell: That is a very important point. 

Rev. G. M. Plaskett (Orange, N. J.): I want to ask about the 
reports from Ohio: Do Negro physicians have clinical facilities and 
hospital facilities; that is, do Negro physicians have the right to clin- 
ical facilities the same as white physicians ? 

Miss Campbell: Dr. Peters, can you answer that from Cincinnati? 

Dr. W. H. Peters, Health Commissioner (Cincinnati, O.): I am 
going to answer that in my paper. 

Mr. Washington: A lot of us do not realize that the Negro new- 
comer from some points of view, has the same difficulty as the for- 
eign-born immigrant has. The Negro migrant does not know © 
much about the complex institutions of the big city. He has to 
be introduced to them just as the foreign-born immigrant. We meet 
that situation in Philadelphia in this way: The Armstrong Associa- 
tion has four women who go about ringing door bells in the dis- 
tricts of the city where the Negro newcomers live, forming neighbor- 
hood groups, and to these groups we bring representatives of the 
health clinics, the hospitals, the night schools, the settlements and 
the like, who tell the newcomers about the agencies and help them 
make the contact. If you want to get these people acquainted with 
the institutions of the city, you have got to do extension work 
among them. 

Mrs. H. A. Hunt (Ft. Valley, Ga.): Down in Georgia, where 
the colored people outnumber the whites three and four to one, we 
have a public health nurse. She is the only public health nurse in 
that county; I might also say in half a dozen or more counties 
around us. We have three clinics every year and we are getting re- 
sults from these clinics. The people out on the big plantations and 
in the big peach orchards are learning what germs are and that 
they do not have to be sick; they are learning how to take care of 
their tubercular patients. 

Mr. Nichols: I wish Mrs. Hunt would tell how they support 
that nurse. 

Mrs. Hunt: We tried very hard to get the Board of Health 
active in this because we have there one member of the State Board, 
but we have not done very much along that line. We do not get 
any help from the whites, only in the cases of giving a little medicine 
and bandages, things of that kind, and we have to go to the North 
and everywhere we can to get the support for this nurse. The Circle 
for Negro Relief has helped us for several years and is helping us 
again this year. 








HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS a2¢ 


Mrs. W. H. Fouse (Lexington, Ky.): In Lexington we have a 
baby clinic. Our colored children are permitted to have the advan- 
tages of the clinic. We have also clinics for venereal diseases. We 
have interested one or two teachers’ associations and churches for 
supplying milk for the underfed in the different schools. We have 
a county nurse, a city nurse and a school nurse, and the city phy- 
siclan. Our hospitals are open to our physicians of the city to 
treat their patients and for operations. Aside from that we have 
access to the sanatorium in the city. Only one thing—we have no 
ward for colored children. We have one for white children and 
they have promised us one for colored children. 

Miss Campbell: Mr. Nichols’ personal question was: Have you any 
peculiar race problems that are keeping that scheme from working? 

Mrs. Fouse: It is working very well now. We have no ward for 
colored children but we are going to have that real soon. 

Mr. Nichols: Did I understand the lady to say that the colored 
physicians are given an opportunity to practice surgery in the hos- 
pital at Lexington, Ky.? 

Mrs. Fouse: Yes, sir. 

Miss Josephine A. Groves (Nashville, Tenn.): I want to say 
that we are making a special fight in Nashville against tuberculosis 
and we have a tuberculosis hospital where both colored and white 
are treated alike and also have a public health board which is doing 
work along this line. We have just opened a tuberculosis clinic 
and have a public health nurse who is stationed there, and also a 
nurse from the Ohio Medical College to come down and help. We 
have clinics in each section of the city and one baby clinic is held 
every week. This is held at the Bethlehem Community Center. It 
is just for Negro children. We have a white nurse and a colored 
physician. It is supported partly by the public at large and partly 
by the churches. It was for a while in the Community Chest but 
because of the claim that it was a denominational affair it was taken 
out of the Community Chest. Of course, it is not denominational, 
but it was taken out of the Community Chest. We hope to get it 
back again. But the infant death rate in the last two years has 
been decreased about 25%. As to social diseases, there are four 
clinics. Each of these clinics is in charge of a practicing physician 
and students come there and take charge of the work. 

Miss Thyra J. Edwards (Gary, Ind.): I am Juvenile Proba- 
tion Officer for Lake County, Ind. We have worked out this fea- 
ture in rather an interesting way. The schools have their school 
nurses who are supported by the Board of Education. ‘These nurses 
make regular and consistent examination of the children. Children 


28 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


who are found to be tubercular are taken to the Tuberculosis Clinic. 
We have a tuberculosis clinic that is conducted about once every 
three months; we have a county nurse who visits in the County, but 
the tuberculosis clinic nurse visits the children and makes a report 
to the parent and the parent keeps up with the examinations. 

We have had some difficulty about a tuberculosis sanitarium 
for Negroes. There are only one or two in the state and we can 
never get more than one or two beds at a time; but we are meet- 
ing that problem by building our own sanitarium. 

Mr. Plaskett: Up in Orange we have the same facilities for 
white and black. Colored physicians look after these children, too, 
as well as white physicians. Have they in Gary a chance to study 
the children, too, as well as white physicians? 

Miss Edwards: They are free to bring their children in. We 
have a state children’s physician who came down and held clinics at 
the white settlement house first and then the colored. In the schools 
we have dental clinics and the colored physicians take alternate days 
to study the mouths of the children, but they rarely have that at 
the tuberculosis clinic with the white physicians. 


PUBLIC SUPPORT OF HEALTH FACILITIES 


E. Franklin Frazier (Atlanta, Ga.): There are two questions 
which I wish to put before the meeting. The first one is: What are 
the health facilities in these communities? The second and more 
pertinent question: To what extent are colored people allowed to 
use these health facilities, and what is the best method of making 
it possible for colored people to use these health facilities? I have 
in mind in the state of Georgia, Mr. Rosenwald has promised 
$5,000 for the Welfare Department if they would raise $5,000. I 
was talking to a man in Chicago a few days ago who told me that 
he had resigned from any activity in helping to raise the $5,000 to 
match Mr. Rosenwald’s gift. According to this man he thought it 
was the wrong step to take for the people to raise money by vol- 
untary contribution to match a gift from Mr. Rosenwald. Then I 
raised the question: Well, perhaps the head of the Welfare De- 
partment of Georgia thinks that by demonstrating the utility of 
developing a state welfare department program to benefit the col- 
ored people the state will finally take it over. I would like fo 
hear some expressions as to, first, how to get the white people to 
include colored people in their welfare programs and allow them 
to use the facilities; whether that was a good way, or whether we 
should use some other method. In Atlanta a colored physician was 


HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 29 


placed on the Tuberculosis Staff. He resigned because he was tired 
of being treated as a piece of furniture; they ignored him entirely. 

Mr. Arthur: A question for the Committee: How best to en- 
courage the national, state, county and city officials to appropriate 
enough money in southern cities and states to employ general health 
officers, visiting nurses, establish infant welfare station, health in- 
stitutes in general, and to add, whenever possible, colored men and 
women to the staff of those organizations. 


SEGREGATION IN HEALTH FACILITIES 


Mr. Plaskett: Facilities in New Jersey are used by blacks and 
whites up to adults. But I asked a Negro physician and a white 
physician what was to be the remedy for tuberculosis in that locality, 
and both agreed it was by the use of the facilities, and until the 
Negro and the white physicians work together in the handling of the 
cases there will be no real improvement. : 

S. A, Allen: Is it true that colored people have the privilege of 
using the convalescent home in New Jersey? 

Mr. Plaskett: Yes, the State Convalescent Home is used by 
them in Northern New Jersey. 

Miss Howell: In one of our baby clinics we have had an inter- 
esting problem come up. The physician in charge happens to be a 
man interested in race relations and has prided himself on the fact 
that there has never been any trouble arising from the fact that the 
clinic is a mixed clinic. They found that they have not had many 
of the Negro migrants in his clinics and they were not getting as many 
colored babies as they should get. So they tried the experiment of 
having separate clinics for colored and white, and found the colored 
babies were coming in in larger numbers. He is dubious as to 
whether or not he is sacrificing an important principle in doing 
that. He is establishing segregation in order to save the babies. 

Miss Campbell: I would like to ask if they think that having 
that separation does help to get over that problem of the Negroes 
using those facilities? 

: Miss Howell: It did in this case. 

Miss Campbell: I found that they will use the white physicians 
and the white clinic sometimes. 

Mr. Robinson: We have in West Virginia a colored superin- 
tendent and we also have two colored women employed by the Health 
Department of our state. One of them is partially paid by the 
_ Federal government. They are doing very excellent work. Also in 
: some of our larger cities, Charleston and some other places, we have 





30 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


a Negro who is an assistant health officer of the city, who has been 
looking after the colored children. 

Miss Campbell: He is in the Health Department and paid by 
the City? 

Mr. Robinson: Paid by the Board of Education. These and 
other health workers are paid by the state, partially paid by the 
U. §. Government. In the city of Clarksburg we have a baby clinic 
in connection with our public schools. Also they recently passed 
a law whereby the county may have a special levy for the purpose 
of having a health department. It is understood that where the 
Negro population is sufficiently large there will be an assistant who 
shall be colored. 

G. W. Thompson: In northern communities where clinics are sup- 
ported by local municipalities, would it be advantageous to the de- 
velopment of proper racial relations to establish separate clinics where 
they have been used by both groups simply because Negroes do not 
attend the regular clinics? 

Sully Johnson (Youngstown, Ohio): I would like to ask the lady 
from Lexington, is it true that they have special clinics for dentists ; 
have they colored physicians who practice with the white physicians ? 

Mrs. Fouse: Yes. The dentist takes each day the children who 
are in line, and the children who come first are the ones taken. We 
are right there where we can see them, and as it is their turn they 
go in and are observed by the physician in charge for that day. 

Mr. Johnson: I want to know if at the same time you have 
colored physicians practice with the white physicians? 

Mrs. Fouse: Not in that particular clinic. 

Mr. Johnson: In Youngstown we have a baby clinic that meets 
once a week. We did at the time have one white and one colored 
physician to examine the babies. Owing to the increase in the col- 
ored physicians’ work, we had to give it up, so we simply have 
white, but we have principally colored babies. 

Professor M. N. Work (Editor of the Negro Year Book, Tuskegee, 
Ala.): There have been some important questions raised. The 
gentleman from New Jersey has raised a very important question 
of the Negro physician getting an opportunity to use the hospital 
facilities the same as the white physician. That is a very important 
thing, and it seems to me it is really a question for this organiza- 
tion to take up and see that that is further extended. 

Then Mr. Frazier raised some important questions, also. I 
want to answer one of those: The question about making a demon- 
stration in order to get a state department of health. We did this at 
Tuskegee Institute. We wanted a state health nurse for colored 





HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 31 


people. Tuskegee Institute paid that nurse’s salary until the demon- 
stration was made, and the State Health Department then took 
over the salary of the nurse, and the salary of that nurse is now 
paid from the Smith-Towner Fund. We ought to get more as- 
sistance from that Smith-Towner Fund in the matter of paying 
nurses to work among colored people. 

Miss Fisher: Just recently the Anti-Tuberculosis League, in co- 
operation with the Negro Welfare Association of Cleveland, put on 
a health institute for a week. They had night and afternoon classes 
which were very educational. I think the Associated Charities put 
forth a special effort to codperate with the Anti-Tuberculosis League 
and the Negro Welfare Association in this health institute by send- 
ing to the classes those women with whom it had contact—Negro 
newcomers into the city who did not know where to go for health 
and surgical facilities. Quite a number of these were given free 
scholarship blanks to attend these health meetings and they learned 
how to care for themselves in general cases. 

Jesse O. Thomas (Atlanta, Ga.): I want to ask Miss Howell 
of St. Louis if a segregated clinic, or rather a clinic for Negroes 
as such, has the same physicians and the same nurses as the whites 
in the mixed clinics 

Miss Howell: Yes, they just have different days for Negro pa- 
tients. The city established different days as an experiment. It has 
only been going a few weeks as an experiment. 

Mr. Thomas: There is a question in my mind of too quickly 
changing the policy without very careful investigation as to why 

_ Negroes would not patronize the mixed clinic. 

Miss Howell: I do not think the policy has been changed. I 

think it has just been done for a short time to see what will happen. 

Mrs. May L. Woodruff (Allendale, N. J.): A very recent experi- 
ence comes to me which bears on this discussion. A group of our 
officers were sent to Jacksonville, Fla., to locate a new site for our 
Brewster Hospital there. We are not proud of the building but 
we are very grateful for the work we have been able to do. One day 
I had the privilege of having interviews with all of the white and the 
Negro physicians practicing in that hospital. It was a most wonder- 
ful experience. The thing that impressed me so was that the Negro 
physicians had understood that we were there to look into whether 
we should move Brewster Hospital from Jacksonville or remain in 
Jacksonville. We had no thought of moving the hospital. These 
physicians said: “If you take Brewster from Jacksonville no 
Negro physician can have operations in the white hospitals and 
you will take away from us our only hospital opportunity.” We 


32 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


had no thought of moving Brewster but we did want more co- 
operation in Jacksonville. The Secretary of the Chamber of Com- 
merce arranged an interview with eleven of the leading men of 
that city, the Mayor, the President of the Community Chest and 
others of similar position. We met them on Saturday morning and 
in an hour had a most marvelous meeting. We presented the 
interests of this hospital. As a result of that interview, codperation 
has been so manifest that it has touched us very deeply, and 
Brewster Hospital this year, for the first time, is in the Community 
Chest. We feel that we have taken a long step in advance in the 
matter of codperation with the city officials with this particular 
organization. It seems to me that it was so manifest that I would 
not be true to our work if I did not tell you about that this morn- 
ing, because I know some of you know conditions in the city of 
Jacksonville. 

Mr. Nichols: Are there not some delegates here from Mississippi, 
from Arkansas, from Louisiana and from Southern Florida and 
Missouri? 

David D. Jones (Atlanta, Ga.): Just one or two points I want 
to raise in this discussion. In the first place, it seems to me that 
we ought to keep clearly in mind that we are not thinking about 
Negroes using white facilities. We are thinking of Negroes getting 
their share of the public facilities. We ought to keep that very clearly 
in mind because, although in Atlanta I do not get some of the 
things that I ought to get, nevertheless they are mine whether I 
get them or not. 

Miss Campbell: Do you mean that the municipal facilities the 
whites use are not open? 

Mr. Jones: I mean to say that they are my rights whether 
I get them or not; I do not mean to say that the Negro is using 
white facilities. Another point is that sometimes we think the 
Negroes use the facilities where we segregate them. I happen to 
know St. Louis very well, having lived there nine years. For a 
long time Negroes were admitted to the city hospital in St. Louis, 
but in being admitted to the city hospital they had to go several 
blocks around to get to the Negro ward, and then when they got 
there it was away around over the kitchen and over the laundry. 
Negro patients were given very little attention. White nurses did 
not care to serve them in any large measure. Now, they have a 
separate hospital manned by our own physicians and by our own 
nurses. The Negroes use that separate hospital more largely than 
they use the other. Now, let us not argue that because they use the 
separate hospital they like segregation. That is not it at all. They 





HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 33 


get better service; they are treated as human beings; they are not 
made to feel that they are the scum of the earth. That is why 
they use the second hospital as against the first. To argue that 
we use a separate clinic because it has put on another name, is 
getting pretty loose in our thinking. There are some elements in 
it that maybe you do not understand. 

Miss Campbell: I think that is very well put and it is one 
problem we must have cleared up because I think all the time there 
is loose thinking, whether it is the attitude of the Negro or the 
attitude of the white. It is a very difficult problem. 

Miss Howell: I think in this case, although the treatment ac- 
corded is exactly the same, it is because the Negro mothers expect 
a different treatment, probably, that they come in on the segregated 
days. I think it is because of education rather than of segregation. 

Mr. Washington: We should think clearly on the subject of the 
segregation of or in medical institutions. The problems of ill 
health grow out of segregation. If the Negro was not limited by 
housing in certain districts, he would not have such a high death 
rate; if he did not have the lowest paid jobs in the community he 
would not have such a high death rate. Isn’t it a fact that every 
time you establish a new separate institution for Negroes you are 
bolstering up the idea of separation which at bottom is the cause 
of most of the Negro’s ills and are, therefore, operating in a vicious 
circle all the time? Personally I would be willing to put up with 
a little ill health for a while if it meant stamping out the symbols 
of segregation which over the long period are the cause of the special 
difficulties of the Negro. 

Miss Edwards: Do you not think this, particularly in the mat- 
ter of the clinic Miss Howell of St. Louis mentioned, that the em- 
ployment of one colored physician or colored nurse would inspire 
the confidence of the colored people? It has been my experience 
that the employment of one colored person is, I think, advantageous ; 
it draws the colored people you are trying to save. They have the 
feeling that having one of their own there will get them a square 
deal. 

Mrs. Lena Trent Gordon (Philadelphia, Pa.): It might be in- 
teresting to know that in Philadelphia the Department of Public 
Welfare during last year has had its particular hobby in its health 
problem. It established on the outskirts of the county within the 
environs of Philadelphia an institution run for the undernourished 
children of the city. Any child who goes there has to be passed 
upon by the Board of Health. Until last year Philadelphia children 
of color did not frequent it to any large extent. Having to do 


34 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


now with the Department of Public Welfare, it has been my good 
fortune to spread the propaganda, thus letting the colored people 
of Philadelphia know that it was for their special use, and last year 
we were able to take care of 1,500 colored children. Often in a 
week the colored people overtopped the white inhabitants. A white 
woman happens to be the counselor. We were promised two colored 
counselors. There is no difference made in the center of activities. 
Both colors are treated alike, and it has been a question of letting 
the people know it is their municipal place. 

Bishop Clement: The question has been raised here as to the 
advantage of separate institutions. We are not willing to commit 
ourselves to the idea of segregation. But we are anxious that where 
there is a public institution, be it a hospital, a school or whatever 
it is, supported by public taxes and operated in the interest of all 
the people, that Negroes, whether they be physicians, teachers or 
whatever they can qualify for, have access to those institutions. 

Miss Campbell: Time is going. In consequence we will have to 
move on to the address of Dr. William H. Peters. He is our Health 
Commissioner in Cincinnati, the head of our Health Department, 
and has been very much interested in the problems which he will 
discuss. He has in every way tried to forward the interest of every- 
thing that pertains to the health of Cincinnati. 

Dr. Wiliam H. Peters (Cincinnati, Ohio) : 


The Negro health problem is one of the big pressing problems of the 
day. While the colored rate is declining, and this is a hopeful sign, the 
Negro contributes more than his quota to the annual death toll of Cincinnati 
from practically every important cause of death. 

Cincinnati’s white death rate was 14.3 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1924, 
while the colored rate was 26.0 or almost double. In 1923 the white rate 
was 15.1 and the colored rate 26.3. In 1922 the rates were 14.2 and 22.5 
in favor of the white race. 

Our colored people, who constitute about nine per cent of the population, 
contribute twenty-eight per cent of the deaths from tuberculosis in Cincinnati. 
Approximately one-fifth of all Negro deaths are due to tuberculosis. As 
compared to the white race, over four times as many colored people die of 
tuberculosis per 1,000 of the population. “The condition is not purely local. 
The tuberculosis death rate in Ohio among Negroes for 1923 was 350 per 
100,000 population as compared with a rate of 75.2 for whites. Tuberculosis 
is the leading cause of death among Negroes.” Wonderful strides have been 
made in the Queen City in combating the great white plague, notably in the 
last five years. In 1910, one thousand and twenty-five people succumbed to 
tuberculosis. Last year the number was reduced to five hundred and twenty- 
four. The recession has been constant but the mortality rate among the 
Negroes is much too high. 

Of the colored children born alive almost three times as many of them 
per 1,000 births recorded, perish during the first year of life. 

The Negroes contributed over 70 per cent of the smallpox cases reported 
last year in Cincinnati, and yet in the Harriet Beecher Stowe School, which 
is exclusively for colored children, located in the down-town center of the 
colored population, there were no cases of smallpox because all of the children 





HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 35 


had been vaccinated. Smallpox would disappear to the vanishing point if 
this requirement prevailed in our industries. 

Social diseases, the pneumonias and Bright’s disease claim a heavy toll 
among the colored people. 

The excess in the colored deaths from preventable causes is responsible 
for more than one point in the crude death rate of the city. 

Over one-half of Cincinnati’s Negro population live in four down-town 
congested wards under conditions which make the Negro the victim of causes 
which lower resistance to disease. Among the most important may be men- 
tioned bad housing, ignorance, race prejudice, lack of opportunity and dissipa- 
tion. We list bad housing first because it is the chief predisposing factor, 
conspiring to keep up the army of susceptibles to disease at full strength. 


INTEREST MANIFESTED BY THE HEALTH AUTHORITIES OF CINCINNATI IN 
THE HEALTH OF THE NEGRO POPULATION. 


On June 27, 1919, the Cincinnati Board of Health met in extraordinary 
session to consider the Negro health problem—a most significant meeting 
attended by many prominent citizens, leaders in civic development and social 
workers. 

One of the remedies suggested by the health commissioner was a com- 
munity health center housing bureau for the prevention of tuberculosis and 
the control of venereal diseases, a dental department, general medical clinics 
for adults and children, a division of public health nursing and a social 
service department. The unanimous opinion was that the project should 
be carried out for the sake of the Negro and the city but unfortunately the 
money never became available. If the Community Chest Drive is successful 
this year we shall have a health center, not quite so elaborate as the one 
planned in 1919, but a modest beginning to which we devoutly look forward. 

When the Sheppard-Towner grants became available for the protection of 
infancy and maternity in 1923, instead of spreading the service all over 
the city, we decided to intensify our work among the colored people for 
reasons that are perfectly obvious if we will recall the mortality rate among 
colored infants. 

During the year and a half of operation we have had 250 prenatal cases, 
1,800 infants, 700 children of pre-school age and 175 tuberculosis contacts 
under observation, and our colored nurses have made over 6,000 home visits. 
Within a very short time after a birth has been recorded, we are in touch 
with the home, as a result of which many children are registered and under 
supervision in our child health centers. We have two, and clinics are con- 
ducted each week. 

In connection with the Sheppard-Towner work among colored people, the 
Department of Health sponsored a course of lectures on pediatrics for the 
colored doctors and a clinic week as our contribution to the national ob- 
servance of Negro Health Week in 1924. Thursday, April 9, 1925, marked 
the close of a very successful Tuberculosis Institute which was planned by 
the Health Department in codperation with the Negro Civic Welfare Asso- 
ciation, The Public Health Federation, The Anti-Tuberculosis League and 
District No. 8 Graduate Nurses’ Association. Never before have our colored 
physicians had such a splendid opportunity to study morbid anatomy, path- 
ology, symptoms and treatment of this disease under men who are eminently 
qualified to teach the subject. Most of the lectures were illustrated by slides 
or by what the X-ray plate revealed. The film, ‘Diagnosis of Pulmonary 
Tuberculosis,” prepared for the Army Medical School and shown through 
the courtesy of the Anti-Tuberculosis League was a recapitulation of the 
entire subject. 

All of our resources in the different divisions of the Health Department 
are at the disposal of the colored population. They are always welcome at 
our Health Center. 


36 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Wuar SHARE Do Neero Citizens HAvE IN THE Pusiic HEALTH 
Nursine SERVICE? 


The public health nursing service in Cincinnati is not centralized. In 
addition to the Division of Public Health Nursing in the Health Department 
many public health nurses are employed by organizations affiliated with the 
Council of Social Agencies. 

We have a complement of twenty-seven women who are working under 
the plan of general nursing. Instead of having highly specialized nurses for 
the prevention of tuberculosis, control of venereal diseases, prenatal care, 
infant welfare, school hygiene, etc., one nurse combines all of these functions. 
in a circumscribed area. We make the family, instead of the individual, the 
unit of nursing service. 

Of the twenty-seven public health nurses in our division, five are colored. 
Putting it another way, we have one colored nurse for every 8,000 of the 
colored population. Our average for the white race is one for every 17,000: 
of the population. 

In the two schools for colored children we have special nursing service. 

All children are weighed and measured three times a year and those who 
are found to be 10 per cent under weight for their height at a given age are 
examined carefully. In addition to these we examine all other children in 
the first, second* and third grades, and children who are referred to the 
doctor by the teacher or nurse. 

In both schools, as was pointed out before, we have clinics once each 
week for children of pre-school age. 

The open air children receive a warm cleansing bath each morning, and 
before they go to their classroom milk and crackers are served. The children 
are weighed regularly, their temperatures are recorded, they are examined 
frequently, and a special effort is made to correct physical defects that may 
be found. 

By making the family the unit for nursing service, many hitherto un- 
recognized cases among the colored people are brought to light, as the result 
of which many colored individuals are under observation at our Health 
Center, located at 209 West Twelfth Street. 

In the summer time infant welfare stations are established, and it has 
always been our custom to provide such service in the centers of colored 
population with the understanding, of course, that the colored people are- 
free to go wherever they please. 


WHAT ARE THE FACILITIES FOR THE HANDLING OF HEALTH CONDITIONS OF 
CoLORED PEOPLE IN OvuR COMMUNITY? 


We have in our community seventeen colored physicians and a half 
dozen dentists. The number is a little bit below the average per thousand 
of the population, and it has been estimated that approximately fifty per cent 
of the colored people call upon the colored physicians. Among the indigent, 
many of the colored people call upon the district physicians of the Health 
Department. 

Obstetric cases are accepted by the Maternity Society and the Cincinnati 
General Hospital. Over fifty per cent of the colored maternity cases last 
year were delivered in hospitals. Our colored people have access to all of 
the wards of the Cincinnati General Hospital and to the Out-Patient Depart- 
ment. Not many beds, however, are available in the private hospitals, and 
the Mercy Hospital, which was established a few years ago exclusively for 
colored people, and which is staffed by colored physicians and nurses, is 
struggling along under conditions that are not at all encouraging. 

It is rather unfortunate for the physician, patient and community that 
the colored physician does not have the opportunity here in Cincinnati to 
acquire more knowledge and skill to deal with the medical problems in the 
solution of which he is the chief factor. 





HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 


37 


We have no training school for colored nurses and the colored physicians 
have no opportunity for post-graduate medical work or bedside instruction 


in the wards of any hospitals. 


We have stated our problem and its causes impartially and as Mr. 
James H. Robinson, executive secretary of the Negro Civic Welfare Associa- 
tion, pointed out, this analysis places the responsibility where it properly 


belongs, on both races. 


Let us not forget that the Negro is an American citizen, and the demands 
for citizenship today are the same for all. The Negro cannot measure u 
to expectancy if he lives in a bad environment, and if his health is not good. 


VITAL STATISTICS 


Mortality from All Causes—Colored and White Population Compared 
Rate per 1,000 
Deaths Population 
TOUS etree hy ee Sas cet els yk rdloetinines 6,218 15.2 
LORS erent rc itd achigi a ae eich Ge eee iets ies 6,528 16.0 
Bee ene hele re esi oa ae aie) ah oPatoubin chaion de 6,041 14.9 
Colored Deaths 
Deere Wee ROTO nich come ch age es wt Cepia eae 911 26.0 
dA Pa Pave ile yi nnett Soetiae LA bra te A I re Maeiy Witind Son p 921 26.3 
EUS yy bane ey Pace Urea Tig AAD Gy mena eRe Rape cae 764 22.5 
White Deaths: 
LOA tee ee dnt over seh tin wien tiie a la) og ai'ohis) ae S 5,307 14.3 
Lr eres A ale ws esto enaister ate ataleaishe woace 5,601 15.1 
LOD ine Meme bore ten Mn ec cei 5it. Wat a unten ae cig eee ale 5,277 14.2 


Colored People, 1924 (9% population), contribute 14.6 total deaths. 
Colored People, 1923 (9% population), contribute 14.2 total deaths. 
Colored People, 1922 (9% population), contribute 12.6 total deaths. 


Population: 
1924 1923 
UV NTT ree rN eer k hg Eola ga aa 372,835 Sii,dle 
IAG eee ieee ha eke aie ote cain cl econ 35,000 35,000 
ENBUSS DUTOAL tikes oP eene ts cite leretere sare bis 407,835 406,312 
DEATHS—TUBERCULOSIS—ALL FoRMS 
1924 1923 
WV iterate We ite arate a bal een ete 363 388 
Cer er eee He caehern roadie atatekcten te 161 153 
PORATION eile ee aievetntos Iason tele a tals §24 541 


1922 
370,862 
*34,000 
404,862 


1922 
439 
165 


nt 


604 


Colored Population, 1924 (9% of the total), contribute 30.7% TBC deaths. 
Colored Population, 1923 (9% of the total), contribute 28.0% TBC deaths. 
Colored Population, 1922 (9% of the total), contribute 27.3% TBC deaths. 
Over 60% of deaths from tuberculosis in three contiguous down-town 


wards—16, 17, 18. 
Infant mortality, three times white. 


SYPHILIS, 1924. 


WV ieGet nee eae ee Seale aes ee on Cia ee ele icles wie. state 8 63 

MRLA CK ere er ee amet e tahses Git intetd eat Robie eh aieisie's cies 30 

GER ce amie Che celle susie ie at oie! ahete ais eastecsJe 2 93 
ALL FormMS PNEUMONIA, 1924. 

OV TALGO Vile sis e cher entrant Tree catet aaen alata Re eo a% Alias Soa" vl et 373 

BQO aoe a dens oe Se erie oti tes Ne er tec eve Stein ele els ae 127 

PP CHEB Mev astes ie enter ea cate coeaee sore tntine eet orga tal aie ee 500 


* Bstimated 


38 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 


Mr. Nichols: The Discussion Committee on Health and Race 
Relations consisting of Dr. Kleinschmidt of the Ohio Public Health 
Association, Dr. Peters, Dr. Clark, Dr. Beamon and Dr. Keller and 
the speaker, have thought that it might be wise to give an indication 
here of some of the causes of the high morbidity and high mortality 
rates among colored people, and then proceed to answer some of the 
questions you have raised. 

First: We feel that mutual ignorance on the part of white and 
colored people as to the mutual dependence of each for their indi- 
vidual health and that of the community is one of the important 
causes of the high morbidity and mortality rates. 

Another cause of the high morbidity and mortality rates is the 
adjustment that Negroes must make as they come from the rural 
sections into the larger city centers. There are facilities in these 
larger centers that will probably play an important part in the reduc- 
tion of the morbidity and mortality rate among those who are com- 
ing to them. But there is manifested high incidence of disease dur- 
ing the early tenure of these people. 

Unequal application of remedial and educational measures is a 
very definite cause of the high rates. Housing, of course, plays an 
important part. Poverty contributes to these high rates. An im- 
portant cause is the lack of closer codperation between white and 
colored medical groups in many communities in the matter of public 
health. 

Second: I will present the answers to questions raised by the 
delegates in relation to the health problems of their communities. It 
is to be understood that the Committee can only give most general 
advice owing to its unfamiliarity with other conditions in the com- 
munity that might affect those presented here by the delegates: 


1. Clinical facilities should be applied equally. 

2. Staffs of public health institutions: The Committee believes that staffs 
of hospitals and clinics ought to be selected as to efficiency rather than as to 
color or race. 

3. Utilization of community facilities for health education: It is cer- 
tainly obvious that the facilities in a community that exist for education, 
exist for the education of all the people of that community. This is a matter 
of adjusting community interracial relationships. 

I should like here to say that it is my personal experience that these 
educational facilities many times do not apply to colored people because 
colored people are not active in securing their application. 

4. The question was raised as to Negroes not using community facilities, 
e.g., poor attendance of Negroes at clinics, etc. The Committee believes this 
can be handled by an intensive educational work on the part of the agencies 
in that particular community. There is a very definite problem presented 
when the migrant arrives in town. He is afraid of the hospital and the 








HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 39 


physician. He is a psychological problem and can only be handled by 
education. 

5. The segregated hospital and separate hospital: We see no harmful 
effect in the separate private hospital. Jewish people have private hospitals, 
religious sects have private hospitals. But as to the public facilities, we 
believe that all of these public facilities, hospitals, clinics, etc., should be 
applied without discrimination. 

6. As to the admission of Negro physicians to practice in hospitals, the 
Committee believes that colored physicians ought to be admitted to hospitals 
and to local medical groups in such organizations as the College of Surgeons 
on their qualifications based not on color but on character and efficiency. 
This is largely a local problem. There is no objection to colored physicians in 
the American Medical Association. 

7. As to nurses: This is a problem that is divided in sections. You have 
a problem of the South and a problem of the North. 

Now, in the South there is a very definite need for increased facilities 
for the training of colored nurses and the standardization of those facilities. 
There also ought to be an opportunity in that section of the country for post- 
graduate work. I mean by that that the nurse should have an opportunity 
to understand how to do public health nursing. At the present time I do 
not believe, unless it is at Meharry, there is a place in the South where a 
colored woman can get an adequate training in public health nursing. In 
the North that condition does not exist. Nurses are given all the opportuni- 
ties that they care to accept for training. 

8. The question was raised as to equal appropriations to engage an 
adequate number of community physicians, school physicians, nurses, ete. 
This is a matter of political activity of the constructive forces in the com- 
munity. It is the opinion of the Committee, too, that we have got to think 
in the terms of training the colored students ‘and the white students as to the 
value of the ballot in the improvement and correction of conditions in their 
community. It is unfortunate that intelligent Negroes who understand 
these problems among their own people do not have the chance to express 
their opinion in many sections by and through their ballot. And so I think 
the problem is down there in the schools to bring an appreciation of the 
ballot and also to train the Negro boy and girl in the absolute need and value 
of this activity in a democracy. 

9. Some one said that in their community the tuberculosis clinic opened 
up once every three months. If I am correct in my understanding of that 
matter, that is not sufficient. Once in three months is certainly not sufficient 
for the handling of tuberculosis. 


The Committee wishes to call your attention to the fact that very 
little was said by the delegates as to the measures of prevention in 
the matter of health. Here we have a problem of education. In 
closing this Committee’s Report, one of the committeemen pointed 
out a rather significant thing, that much of the health information 
that would be of value in preventing such conditions as rickets, tuber- 
culosis, etc..—preventable conditions—are not used by Negroes. He 
suggested greater use of community agencies, as most of the informa- 
tion gets to the people through the public health agencies, churches, 
etc., in the community rather than through professional agencies. In 
prevention we have got to pay more attention to education, more 
attention to recreation facilities and more attention to the equal 
application of these measures by the city, county, etc. 


40 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


I think that covers practically all the questions we received. 

Mr. Arthur: May I say a word about health statistics as they 
apply to Negroes? 

Miss Campbell: If Mr. Nichols will let you, I will place it under 
his jurisdiction. 

Mr. Arthur: The figures that the Commission of Health gave 
are for the restricted area of Ohio. The 1920 census gives the 
average death rate for the American Negro at 16.1, which is 9 points 
less than the average death rate of the Negro in Ohio. The fact is 
that the percentages of increase in Negro health in that time, 1910- 
1920, was larger in proportion than the white groups according to 
the U. S. census for 1920. 

Mr. Frazer: It seems to me that everybody here, in fact, every- 
body in the world, recognizes the fact that the Negro should be vac- 
cinated, should have a nurse, should not be run over by the street 
car, should not do this and that; but it seems to me the chief point 
of this conference is: How are we going to get the white people, who 
do not see that, to see the situation? Since in Georgia they do not 
permit colored boy scouts, it seems absolutely foolish for me to say 
you ought to have them. I want to know how you can get them to 
do it. The man in New York dodges the issue. I understand they 
have colored boy scouts in Kentucky. Will somebody from Kentucky 
tell us how you get those white people in Kentucky to see the light? 
Would you raise the I.Q. or what would you do? 

C. H. James (Charleston, W. Va.): I have come here voluntarily. 
I am only a business man, just a wholesale merchant, but I am very 
much interested in this question. As Dr. Peters held up the figures 
here, which we all know, about how unhealthy the colored people are, 
it seems to me that we are trying to solve the problem that our sys- 
tem has already produced. It reminds me of the old-time saying: 
“An ounce of prevention is worth many pounds of cure.” What I 
mean is this: When you look around in this district, not only here 
but in every town, and see the sanitary conditions, you may know 
why our people are unhealthy. If they had the money they would not 
live that way, but they have not the opportunity to make the money. 
Now, if you create the opportunity for these people you will not have 
this problem to solve, neither will you have any race problem to 
solve. I have been in the wholesale produce business thirty-five years 
or forty years and 99% of my wholesale trade is white people. If 
you will give the colored man an opportunity to work, you will see 
him rise up and live in sanitary conditions, and you will not have 
to carry him. 





HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS +1 


Mr. Nichols (Interrupting): That is going to be discussed to- 
morrow in the matter of industry. 

Dr. C. V. Roman (Nashville, Tenn.): I understood you to say 
that the opportunities for the nurses were unlimited in the North? 

Mr. Nichols: The opportunity for training. 

Dr. Roman: Is that true? 

Mr. Nichols: I think training for nurses. 

Mr. Thompson: I do not think there is a place in the state of 
Ohio where a colored girl may be adequately trained for nursing. 

Dr. Roman: My observation is that the condition is a mixed one. 
What they do in Nashville by direct force, they do in Boston by 
innuendo. 

Mr. Nichols: I think I ought to clear up the question about 
nursing. It has been my experience that whereas a nurse might not 
find an opportunity in Ohio or some other place, that same girl 
could find an opportunity in some of the other hospitals of the North. 
Now the problem of the North is not so much a problem of an oppor- 
tunity for training, but of securing candidates for training. At the 
present time we have sufficient facilities in the North. 

Mrs. Hunt: In Fort Valley when we want these agencies, we 
just go to work ourselves and do the job. We showed to the State. 
Department that we wanted demonstration agencies. We did the 
work ourselves, and now the State Department takes care of our 
demonstration agents. We did the same thing and started in the 
public health work. We are working with our authorities there, and 
we believe it is not going to be very long before the state will take 
up this health work. 

Mr. Nichols: I should like to answer that question. There is 
need for an effort in colored schools and colleges to convince the 
colored girl in those schools and colleges that nursing offers an oppor- 
tunity for service that is about equal to that of teaching. There is a 
very definite problem, the problem of getting the kind of girl who has 


the fundamental education to take the work up. 


Rev. H. M. Kingsley (Cleveland, Ohio): I am sorry to have to 
question Mr. Nichols’ last statement. There are no opportunities in 
Cleveland, at least. Cleveland is a representative city of the North 
and I would like at least to protest against that statement because 
in Cleveland it is not true. 

Mr. Nichols: I am not trying to differentiate by states. At the 
present time any qualified girl who wants to get a nurse’s training 


_ in the North can find a place to get that training. 


Mr. Martin: I think that so far as health is concerned, this Negro 
problem is a national one, and I think that is true in other relations. 


42 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


If we find that there is a solution that will apply in Tennessee or 
Georgia, the same panacea will work in Ohio. It is not true that 
opportunity for training to conserve health is equal for the colored 
boy and girl in Cleveland as it is for others, and if this conference 
wants to recognize that fact and try to bring about that equality, it 
is necessary to go forward as one. 

Mr. Nichols: May I ask if Dr. Kleinschmidt will say a word out 
of his experience in the last two or three years in Toledo, Ohio? He 
is one of the leading public health authorities in the United States 
and they have had some experience in Toledo in the past two or 
three years in this situation. 

Dr. H, E. Kleinschmidt: In closing I would like to emphasize one 
point Mr. Nichols already brought up, and while we have been discuss- 
ing facilities mostly, prevention has not so much to do with facilities 
after all. It is true we need tuberculosis facilities, but the city 
facilities which are open to all are not sufficiently used. 

We found in Toledo that the facilities there were waiting for the 
colored people to use, were not adequately used. Science draws no 
color line and there is little discrimination shown, some perhaps. 
We are all entitled to hospital facilities, but the means by which 
knowledge of life-saving facilities gets to the people is largely social, 
and there, it seems to me, we are weak with regard to getting informa- 
tion about health to the colored people especially. Very little was 
said about rickets, which is particularly high among the colored 
people. Rickets need not be. It is not the cause, so much, of poverty. 
I agree with the gentleman who said the Negro wants a chance. Give 
him a chance, he will prevent these diseases. That is at least 75% 
true, but there is another 25% which has nothing to do with chance. 
It is the understanding and the ability to use the facilities which 
are offered and are not adequately used by Negroes. The Public 
Health Association in Toledo has a number of facilities and they are 
not called for sufficiently. It does not seem to me we can make great 
progress in combating tuberculosis, venereal disease and diseases 
which kill babies, if we do not use the information which is here and 
free and open to colored as well as whites. 


SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION ON 
II. HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS * 


A. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES 
1. Columbus, Ohio. (Extract from a Survey in The Columbus Citizen, 
March 18, 1925.) 


* Made by Professor Earle Edward Eubank, Department of Sociology, Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati. 


| 








HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 43 


SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION (Continued) 


Per Per 

1,000 1,000 
Negro chances of being murdered are 34 to 1 (white) 
Negro chances of dying if injured are Dey EL ; 
Negro chances of infant death are otoO ei] oy 
Negro tuberculosis death rate is 370 to 76 Fs 
Negro general death rate is Zod tO 1LSie 


In three years the Negro population increased 8%, while the Negro 


death rate increased 30%. 
2. Cincinnati (figures given by Dr. W. H. Peters, City Health Commis- 


sioner) Negro population is 1/9 of the total in Cincinnati, 
Negroes furnish over ¥% the total deaths from tuberculosis. 
Negroes furnish 14 the total deaths from pneumonia. 
Negroes furnish 1/3 the total deaths from syphilis. 
Negroes furnish 70% the total cases from smallpox, 


Negro rate of tuberculosis is 350 to 75.2 (white) 
Negro rate of infant death is 3°) ta) ” 
Negro rate of general death is 26 to 14.3 per 1,000. 


And these ratios are mere samples of the general health status of 
Negro population in northern cities. 


3. Negro high mortality due in part to: 


(a) Negro ignorance and indifference to health matters. 

(b) Difficulty in getting satisfactorily settled in new locations after 
migration. 

(c) Inadequate health facilities due to improper attitudes of officials 
and general public, especially in South. 

(d) Lack of codperation between white and Negro agencies. 

(e) Lack of Negro aggressiveness in demanding their share of at- 

tention. 


B. EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS 
1. Ratio of improvement in health conditions is greater in Negro than in 


white population. 


- Hospital and clinical care for Negroes on a par with whites reported 


from Youngstown, Nashville, Cleveland, Washington, D. C., and other 
cities. 


. Surgical practice in hospitals provided for Negroes in Lexington, Ky. 
. Negro staff members in State Health Department, reported from West 


Virginia. 


CuaApter III 
HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS * 


Chairman: Mr. Forrester B. Washington, the Executive Secretary 
of the Armstrong Association of Philadelphia, is Chairman of the 
Discussion Committee. Mr. Bleecker Marquette, Cincinnati, Ohio, 
will give the address. Mr. Washington now has the floor. 

Mr. Washington: May I ask the members of the Discussion Com- 
mittee and also Mr. Frazier to come forward? I want to say that 
our Committee met last night and we took this liberty with the 
rules. In order at least approximately to cover the problem we 
decided to divide it up into five main headings: 


1. How shall housing best be provided for Negroes? 

2. How can the Negroes’ difficulty in trying to obtain mortgage 
money be changed ? 

3. A discussion of the rent situations. 

4. How can better upkeep of Negro houses be obtained from the 
landlord and from the Negro tenant? 

5. The effect of housing on moral conditions and health. 


Finally, housing and race relations, what are the effects of resi- 
dential segregation and that sort of thing? 


THE EFFECTS OF HOUSING LAWS ON CONGESTION 


Chairman: We will proceed at once to the discussion of these 
various subjects. The first one is: How shall housing best be pro- 
vided for Negroes? Does any one wish to speak on that subject? 

S. Joe Brown: We have in Iowa a State Housing Law, which 
requires certain things in housing regardless of your occupation, and 
if those things are not done the house cannot be occupied. 

Miss Thyra Edwards: I would like to ask how effectively that 
has worked out and what the restrictions are? 

Mr. Brown: So effectively that if a tenant reports to the Housing 
Commissioner that the house is in bad repair, this Commission will 
inspect the house and order it vacated, and no other tenant can move 
in until the repairs are made. 


* Thursday, March 26, 11:00 a.m. Miss M. Edith Campbell, presiding. 
44 


HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 45 


Miss Edwards: Do the tenants take advantage of it? 

Mr. Brown: Not as much as they should. 

Mrs. Josephine M. Norcom (Cincinnati, Ohio): I would like to 
ask if all citizens are eligible as tenants in all houses? 

Mr. Brown: Well, legally, they are, of course. As a matter of 
fact we have some restrictions the same as you have everywhere else. 
A man sells. His tenant cannot compel him to rent. Then, if he 
does not want to, there are houses in Des Moines he cannot rent. 

Miss Edwards: Have you generally good conditions or have you 
any deplorable conditions, I was trying to see 

Mr. Brown (Interrupting): Fairly good conditions. 

Miss Edwards: You do not think you have the tenement districts 





or 





Mr. Brown (Interrupting): We really do not have any large 
tenement districts. Des Moines has only 150,000 people, and we do 
not have very much slum property. 

Mr. Greene (Pittsburg, Pa.): I would like to know how long 
that law has been in operation. 

Mr. Brown: Well, I should judge five years. 


LANDLORDS AND RACE 


Mr. Greene: I would like to know if there is any housing con- 
gestion and how far that has gone to help relieve housing congestion. 
That is our problem in Pennsylvania. There is great congestion and 
we do not know just how to get at some way of relieving that conges- 
tion. Nearly all of the property in the district is owned by Jews. 
There is one place there, the assessed value of which is $500 the 
owner is drawing rent now of $123 a month off his Negro tenants. 
We would lke to know just how far that law in the state of Iowa 
has gone in helping that. 

Mr. Brown: As I said before, we do not have a very congested 
situation in our town. We have only one large city in Iowa and that 
is not a very large city, only 150,000 people. 

S. J. Russack (St. Louis, Mo.): I would like to ask the gentle- 
man from Pittsburg if, at a meeting of this kind, there is any par- 
ticular reason to emphasize the fact that the homes he spoke of were 
owned by Jews? Would the gentleman have made the same statement 
if it were owned by Methodists, Presbyterians or Congregationalists ? 
I happen to be a Jew. 

Mr. Greene: My experience is that 90% of the property is owned 
by the Jewish race, and they take advantage. For instance, some of 
our employees at Westinghouse, where I happen to be connected, rent 


46 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


from Jews and the property they took over last year was renting for 
$18 a month, and this particular fellow put it up to $42 a month. 

Mr. Russack: I am not disputing the facts, I am only mention- 
ing the necessity, at a meeting of this kind, to emphasize the fact by 
stating that this property is owned by Jews. 

Chairman: May I say that being a Presbyterian, I should not 
like to have their record investigated. I do not know whether it 
answers the question or not. I am sorry to say, also, that we have 
not the same facilities for taking care of our philanthropic work that 
our Jewish population has, but I believe if some one 

Mr, Washington: I am sure that the remark is rather unfors 
tunate because if it had not been for Jews in Detroit, Chicago, Cin- 
cinnati and many northern cities, we would not have been able to get 
any houses at all. Through my observation in the making of a State 
Survey in Pennsylvania, the chief white group found demonstrating 
the possibility of white and colored people living together in the same 
houses were dominantly Jews. 

Chairman: In our model housing situation in Cincinnati, while 
financed by Mr. Schmidlapp, it is managed by Mr. Ginberg, who is 
a Jew, and many of the people in that model housing group are 
Jewish men. 

Miss Edwards: Recently in Gary, Ind., we made a survey with 
the cooperation of the schools and churches, headed by white women 
and the white women’s club. We discovered that the worst houses 
and the highest rents were being charged by Americans, and the 
houses kept up the best and with the lower rents for convenience were 
those of foreigners—Jews and Europeans included. 





THE DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING MORTGAGE MONEY 


Chairman: The next question is: How can the Negroes’ difficulty 
in trying to obtain mortgage money be changed ? 

Mr. Kingsley: There is one phase of that question which has no 
relation to mortgage money. This particular case is not a slum case; 
we are talking largely about people who cannot help themselves. The 
problem concerning us more than any other thing is that the man 
who wants to live in a better house, who wants to get away from the 
poorer neighborhood, his people are asked by the white people: “Why 
do you want to live among people who do not want you?” In this 
case it is not a question of mortgage money because the man is able 
to finance it. It is not a case of going to the courts, probably, because 
the people who are driving this professional man from this neighbor- 
hood realize that they cannot touch him financially, he is financially 








HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 4? 


independent. They say we are going to beat you because we are going 
to intimidate your architect and your contractors, we will make it 
so expensive for you in keeping guards here until the contracts are 
finished ; we are going to see that when you are through the building 
will not be accepted, it will be inspected and found not to come up to 
specifications. What are you going to do about a case like that? 
Mortgage money is not all in this. 

Mr. Washington: Cannot we keep to the subject? This is a dis- 
cussion of mortgage money. 

Bishop Clement: I want to give two instances: In Memphis, 
Tenn., a Negro applied for mortgage money deposited in banks there 
by one of the greatest of American insurance companies. He was 
refused. He told me about it. He was carrying at that time thou- 
sands of dollars of insurance in that company on his own life. The 
Negroes in Memphis were carrying insurance in that company, but 
the persons who had that money in trust refused to lend it on Negro 
property. There was not any remedy in Memphis. There is a rem- 
‘edy if the Negroes all over the country would put their fingers on 
that insurance company. 

In the city of Washington a Negro woman wanted to buy a house. 
She was buying that house through a Negro real estate broker. She 
applied to a certain trust company in Washington, whose name I will 
not call, and the loan was turned down. The property was appraised 
far above, the equivalent valuation was far above what she desired. 
The appraisement was satisfactory, but when they found out she was 
a Negro woman, of course, they turned her down. She went back 
to the colored broker and he went down to the trust company. The 
Negroes in Washington had in that bank a million dollars. We got 
in touch with the Negroes who had money in that bank, and we said: 
“Tf you don’t lend Negroes money on real estate in your bank, we will 
draw our money out of your bank.” They got the loan. 

H. Sudduth, Real Estate Broker, (Cincinnati, Ohio): My six- 
teen years’ experience in negotiating real estate mortgage loans for 
colored people here in Cincinnati has taught me that 95% of those 
persons who are saving money for the purpose of purchasing a home 
and who eventually have need of a mortgage loan, deposit their money 
with savings banks. On the other hand, 5% of those who are saving 
purchasing money for the purpose of buying a home, carry those 
savings accounts with building and loan associations. Those who 
are saving money deposited in savings banks for the purpose of pur- 
chasing a home, after they have saved sufficient to make the initial 
payment upon the property, naturally, should go to their banks 
for the purpose of borrowing money with which to complete the pur- 


48 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


chase price, and about 5% of those who apply to savings banks in 
Cincinnati are accommodated. 

Those who are not accommodated are usually told one of three 
reasons: “We are loaned up and we will not be in the market for 
any more loans for sixty or ninety days,” when perhaps at the same 
time that same bank was carrying two columns of six-inch advertise- 
ments announcing that they had money -to loan upon real estate. 
Another reason they give is this: “Is your property in a colored 
neighborhood?” “Yes.” “Well, that neighborhood is depreciating 
and we do not care for loans in that neighborhood.” If the property 
happens to be in a white neighborhood, they sympathize with you for 
wanting to buy, but they are not interested in your application. Those 
are some of the reasons we meet. 

On the other hand, building and loan associations have only 5% 
of the savings of those colored people who are saving for the purchase 
of a home, and they loan to the colored people some 95% of the 
mortgages upon the property held by Negroes in the city of Cincin- 
nati. You will learn from that, then, that where the banks have the 
use of 95% of the Negro’s savings in Cincinnati, Negroes get only 
5% of the money they need to purchase homes from the savings 
banks. On the other hand, the building and loan associations that 
have only 5% of their money have loaned to the Negroes 95% of the 
money they now have upon property. 

Mr. Ackley: I would like to ask if Negroes have difficulty in get- 
ting mortgage money in cities where Negroes run banks. I know in 
Nashville, Tenn., banks are run by Negroes. The president of one 
of those banks told me yesterday, not only did they not have difficulty 
in getting mortgage money, but many of the banks run by white 
people make loans to Negroes which he would like to have, if pos- 
sible. 

Mr. Sudduth: I am speaking of conditions in Cincinnati. 

Mr. Martin: Simply have the colored people furnish their own 
money by organizing among themselves building and loan associations. 
That has been done in Cleveland. They can do it. 


HOW CAN RENTS BE KEPT DOWN? 


Charman: I am going to suggest that next we have two subjects: 
How can rents for Negroes be kept down; how can better upkeep for 
Negro homes be obtained from the landlord and from the tenant? 
We will have to give ten minutes to both of those subjects. 

Rev. C. W. Burton (Chicago, Ill.): Sometimes rents need to 
advance in the nature of things. In Chicago rents have advanced 





| 





HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 49 


more than 100% in the last few years, and I think on the whole that 
might be justified. When people move into better houses they expect 
to pay more rent; when wages are on the upward trend they are pre- 
pared to pay more rent; and I wonder if we should put the question 
just that way, how may rents be kept down, when sometimes they 
should not be kept down. I suppose we have in mind how they should 
be kept at the level they ought to be, and then I suppose the answer 
to that would be that the supply and demand must possibly regulate - 
that. In Chicago we have some real estate dealers who have been in 
the profiteering business, as they have in other places, and I think 
public sentiment ought to be developed against profiteering in the 
real estate business, and I believe that our local organizations such 
as the N.A.A.C.P. and the interracial commissions ought to help in 
that direction. 

Mrs. Gordon: We found in Philadelphia that the rent question 
between landlord and tenant takes about eight points in every ten 
cases of welfare work brought to our attention. The minute some- 
thing that savors of law comes to the landlord’s attention he imme- 
diately makes an adjustment. I just wanted to say that in the 
absence of a legal aid society you might start a model block work and 
get the city department to codperate with the landlord. 

Dr. Jernagin: The trouble we had in Washington for a number 
of years has been settled the last five years by our Rent Commission 
which has served to keep rents down. We are having some difficulty 
now as to whether or not we are going to continue that. That Rent 
Commission was a means by which the tenants could appeal their 
cases at any time the landlord put an enormous rent upon them. 


BETTER UPKEEP FROM LANDLORD AND FROM TENANT 


Chairman: The next question is: How can better upkeep be ob- 
tained from the landlord and also from the tenant? 

Mr. Plaskett: On the question of upkeep, could not the legal aid 
societies be made to operate against the landlord? Poor people can- 
not go to law all the time. It is the only way they can get any sort 
of satisfaction, and I would like to know whether the legal aid societies 
do codperate when you have them. 

Dr. Haynes: I live in New York City, in Harlem. I have studied 
the situation a good many years and I can speak from both angles. 
I think we ought to face the facts. In these old tumble-down houses, 
that is a matter for a different type of protection, they cannot get 
repairs. If you will study the Harlem situation, however, where they 
have moved into high-grade houses, after two or three years, those 


50 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


properties begin to run down. And if you will consult with reason- 
able landlords, who have faced that, you will find that the repair 
bills on those houses have materially increased when colored people 
have come to occupy those higher grade houses. It seems to me that 
one of the problems is to help those tenants learn how to take care 
of the properties when they move into the higher grade of properties. 

Chairman: May I ask Mr. Ginberg to substantiate that in Cin- 
cinnati we have had very little difficulty with upkeep? 

Mr. Harris Ginberg (Cincinnati, Ohio): No, our expense with 
the upkeep between whites and colored are the same. ‘The destruc- 
tiveness we mostly find among the children, and I think the white 
boy beats the colored in destructiveness. 

L. C. William (Columbus, Ohio): I will corroborate what Dr. 
Haynes said. Recently I had occasion to take a survey in Columbus. 
We found that houses colored people had been living in had been 
damaged greatly and the landlords said they could not raise the 
rents and keep properties up. We found that properties rented to 
colored people were being torn down, the plaster was torn off the 
walls. We found that the colored people would have to be trained 
to live in houses with modern conveniences. Those who are here do 
not often see into the homes of the people who live in the back alleys 
and slums. There are hundreds of our people in the cities who do 
not understand how to care properly for these improved houses. 
Miss Clay, Visiting Housekeeper, Cincinnat. Better Housing 
League (Cincinnati, Ohio): I think we are all aware that condition 
exists where the property is occupied by certain classes of Negro ten- 
ants. Now we would be interested in how we shall remedy that con- 
dition, how we are going to teach our people. I have had it stated 
to me that it is impossible, but I find it is possible in most instances, 
and the method I have used is this: I see that my first approach is 
friendly. I establish a friendly contact with the tenant with whom 
I am going to talk. Second, I approve every effort made by the tenant 
to cooperate with my plan; I commend the work they do. More than 
that, I give them instruction in a confidential manner. No person 
who is not a member of the immediate family knows what our plan 
is, and I do get codperation. I think it is a good idea to be willing 
to go the second mile to secure codperation with the tenant. I think 
it is the plan of effective individual teaching service that brings results. 


EFFECTS OF HOUSING ON MORALS AND HEALTH 


Chairman: The next point to be discussed is the effect of housing 
on morals and health, and the effect on race relations. 


eee SS aaa ass nwa, a err rereae—=—=—a—na—=E=E>POPnaOOOEeOroroOoOoree—— 





HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 51 


Mr, Arthur: The effect is bad. 

Mr. Ginberg: I have been asked to give a few figures of my 
experience on modern housing relative to health and conduct. The 
Cincinnati Model Homes Company houses 405 families, 225 of them 
are colored, comprising 56% of the total tenancy. We have kept 
close tab on the mortality and the conduct of one colored group com- 
prising 185 families, approximately 600 souls. Since 1915 there 
was a total number of deaths of different causes, 66, or 6.6 per year. 
Divide that by 600 and it will give you 11 deaths per thousand popu- 
lation. The Cincinnati Negro death rate for 1924 was 26, varying 
two to three, for the last five years. That is rather slippery ground 
we have always considered. Any actuary or statistician here would 
knock me out in a very short time. However, we cannot claim that 
the Cincinnati Model Homes Company’s tenants contribute 11% to 
the death rate of Cincinnati for this reason: A tenant may be with 
us ten or twelve years in good health, move out today, die tomorrow. 
We don’t claim his death, whereas Cincinnati as a whole does claim 
his death. The only thing we can claim is that this particular group, 


_the Washington Terrace group, does not contribute 26 deaths per 


thousand population. 

But it seems to me the most encouraging feature, and I believe we 
stand here on solid ground, for we are not afraid of any statisticians, 
is the conduct record. We have kept close touch on the conduct 
record. For 1915, 1916, 1917 we had ten arrests; 1918, one; 1919, 
four; 1920, four. The total arrests up to 1924, inclusive, were 32 


_ arrests for ten years. There were several arrests on suspicion and 
we counted them arrests just the same. Thirty-two arrests for ten 


years mean 3.2 per year. Divide that among 600 souls and you have 
one arrest for 188 souls. We thought it was a splendid record, and at 
the close of 1922, before the annual meeting, we addressed a letter 
to the Chief of Police asking him what the total arrest for Cincinnati 
was. ‘Total arrests for 1922 were 30,925. Out of that 4,779 were 
colored. We wanted to arrive at the percentage. We estimated at the 
time that the colored population was 33,000; dividing that by the 
number of arrests, you get one arrest for every seven Negroes in Cin- 


_ cinnati for that particular year. But the balance were white arrests, 
| 26,156. Estimating the population to be at the time 375,000, if you 


divide that you have one arrest for every fourteen white people in 
Cincinnati as against one arrest for 188 souls in Washington Ter- 
race. I leave it to the delegates to draw conclusions about environ- 


| ment. 


Mr. Bleecker Marquette, Executive Secretary of the Cincinnati 


52 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Better Housing League and Public Health Federation, gave an ad- 
dress then, in part, as follows: 


The housing of colored families in the larger cities of the United States 
is uniformly bad. In most communities the major portion of the colored 
population is confined to sections in which the houses have deteriorated and 
general structural conditions are unsatisfactory. It can be said without 
much fear of contradiction that in every city in which there is an extensive 
colored population, the conditions under which the larger population of the 
colored people live are the worst in the city. This is reflected in the high 
sickness rate and the high death rate, particularly from causes which have 
a relation to environment such as tuberculosis, infant mortality, pneumonia, 
etc. 

Added to this is the fact that due to a combination of reasons, the rents 
charged are invariably higher for colored tenants for less satisfactory accom- 
modations. This is true whether the properties are owned by colored owners 
or by white owners and the reason usually assigned by the owners is that the 
colored tenants are less careful of the property and the wear and tear is 
correspondingly greater. If this is true of a limited group of families, it 
is the responsibility of the community. The Negro families coming into a 
community from the southern part of the country are unfamiliar with the 
problems of city living and in the average city practically no steps are taken 
to instruct them in their rights and duties as tenants. The majority of 
colored families are good tenants and often the landlord takes advantage of 
their helplessness and charges rents that are unjustifiable. 

There is need for a better understanding between the races and a more 
sympathetic attitude on the part of the white population toward the housing 
problems confronting the Negro. There is need of more constructive efforts 
in helping the poorer colored families to make the best of the conditions 
under which they are required to live and to eliminate whatever basis there 
is for the charge that many colored tenants are not careful of the owners’ 
property. In Cincinnati the Health Department has endeavored to do educa- 
tional work and the Better Housing League has developed a system of visiting 
housekeepers, four of whom are colored and who work exclusively in parts 
of the city in which colored people live. They endeavor on the one hand to 
help colored tenants to improve their housekeeping and on the other hand 
to urge owners to make needed repairs and alterations. We have found this 
plan decidedly worth while and were it possible for the Community Chest to 
give the Better Housing League sufficient funds to employ enough visiting 
housekeepers we are confident that we could meet the situation with some 
degree of success. 

There can be no hope of decent housing for the families of small income 
either colored or white without good housing laws well enforced. Such laws 
should first safeguard all future home building to prevent the creation of 
future slums, and, secondly, should require that existing houses be made 
reasonably fit for people to live in or be vacated. Many cities have reasonably 
good laws but few make even a pretense at enforcement. In Cincinnati the 
Building Commissioner, Mr. George R. Hauser, has recently had passed by 
the City Council an ordinance which requires tenement owners to pay a fee 
of $3.(0 for the inspection of properties found to be in violation of the law. 
If approved by the Mayor we expect this ordinance to raise enough money to 
employ a total of eight housing inspectors. This will mean that for the first 
time ig the history of Cincinnati there will be something like adequate super- 
vision of tenement houses in which the poor, white and colored, are destined 
to live for many years to come. 

There is needed also the development of a greater interest and better 
organization among the leaders of the colored race for bettering the housing 
of the poorer families. In mest cities the poorer Negro families are neglected 





HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 53 


by the white people and they do not receive anything like the organized 
assistance of leaders among the colored citizens that is urgently needed. 
There can be no doubt that an organized movement among the colored people 
_to improve their housing conditions would accomplish much and would en- 
_ courage white organizations which are endeavoring to cope with the problem. 
The Cincinnati Negro Civic Welfare Association has pointed out this need 
| repeatedly. 
Looking at the situation broadly as a problem facing the country, it 
| would seem that if it were pore for some national organization to study 
housing conditions and available housing accommodations in northern com- 
munities that they could do a great service in protecting prospective colored 
migrants by directing them to those communities where there is a place for 
| them. The colored migrants and the more overcrowded of the northern 
| communities are both suffering from the fact that in many cases the migrants 
| are going to the very cities which are least able to accommodate them. This 
has resulted in unspeakable congestion and has made the problem in such 
/ communities worse for all concerned. 
: A plan by which Negro migrants coming into a given city could be met at 
the railroad stations and assisted in finding housing accommodations and 
| instructed in the problems of city living from the start would assist 
materially in preventing the acute situation that has developed in cities like 
| Cincinnati where the congestion of the colored population is appalling. In 
codperation with the Negro Civic Welfare Association, we have such a plan 
| now in prospect for Cincinnati. 

In addition to this there is no doubt that much more could be done towards 
stimulating colored families to own their own homes if colored people them- 
selves would develop building and loan associations and other means of 
helping the colored families of moderate means to finance the purchase of a 
| home and advising them on the numerous problems confronting the prospective 
home owner in purchasing or building a home. 

The possibility that the leaders among the colored people might undertake 

to build homes is deserving of consideration. The chief difficulty in providing 
| new housing accommodations for colored families lies in the fact that con- 
struction costs are too high to make it possible to produce a single or two- 
| family house which the average colored family can afford either to rent or 
| to purchase. 
! The Cincinnati Model Homes Company has done an outstanding service in 
| providing low-cost homes to rent for both colored and_ white tenants. 
There are few housing developments in the country which like this one 
have actually succeeded in housing Negro tenants and white tenants of the 
unskilled wage earner group and which have at the same time paid a 5% 
dividend on the money invested. The Model Homes Company houses 402 
families in group houses which are maintained in the best possible condition. 
The efforts of this Company to build more low-cost homes during the past 
year were not encouraging. These buildings had to be rented at the rate 
of $35.00 for a four-room flat which the Model Homes Company considered 
too high for the average wage earner and even at this rental it was not 
possible to realize the 5% which they have to secure on their investment 
in order to attract any capital at all.... 

Northern cities have passed through one of the most critical periods in 
city housing for the Negro—aggravated by the shortage of houses and by 
the influx of migrants. Evidence points to the fact that the shortage is 
being cut down each year and that before long we may hope to begin a 
forward movement in the housing of our colored population as contrasted 
with the backward trend of the past three years. I shall close with a 
summary of work done in Negro homes by visiting housekeepers of the 
Cincinnati Better Housing League in 1924: 


54 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


REPORT OF WORK DONE IN COLORED HOMES BY VISITING HOUSEKEEPERS OF 
THE BETTER HOUSING LEAGUE, 1924 


I. Families 


Family Rvisite: % or" calsa feta ai ahi ae Vee ee ane 7300 
Housekeeping timmproved ar). sct, eo Gara ie eke 872 
Families moved to better rooms ....................... 119 
Overcrowding. eliminated 97)40e ey eure ee 48 
II. Houses 
Visite.of ‘inspection’: 3.4 Js.tu seeder eee 1039 
Visite 2of supervision ity Os, . Tule, nL eee ee ee ee 1539 
Interviews /withy owners irs fa ee ee oe 935 
Houses® remodeled ice atc we, nec as em tat 62 
Conveniences installed #4) 14 35 a ee eee 1707 
Health and fire risks removed ........................ 773 
REPAITH eG Ale eres woe eae AN Eee ee ne ae Mat 1765 
Parts of houses cleaned and painted .................. 4751 
Houses vacated’ oli nd eerily 1 Raeee tae oad en sot 37 
Houses ‘torn down!) Gusline, 2 a cee ee ee ean 12 


Chairman: I am sure you will recognize how very much we do 
depend upon Mr. Marquette’s leadership in Cincinnati, and, as 
Mr. Robinson so affectionately called him one time, we look upon 
him as the Napoleon Bonaparte of Housing and Health in Cincin- 
nati. I now introduce Mr. Washington, who will give the report of 
the Discussion Committee. 


REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON Housing AND RAcE RELATIONS 


Mr. Washington: This Committee will not consume very much 
time in making its report. It is our desire to give the most time to 
you delegates for discussion. 


1. In the previous discussion, which we are now summarizing, nothing 
was said about adding new housing facilities to Negro communities. That 
is the most important phase of the Negro housing problem, especially in the 
great centers of Negro population. Nothing was said about philanthropic 
housing. This is where an organization is formed by socially minded persons 
of means to build new houses or rebuild old houses for low-paid wage-earners. 
Investors in such projects do not expect to earn more than 4 or 5% on the 
money invested. ‘he increase in housing facilities occasioned by philan- 
thropic housing has been so small that it has been of little effect in reducing 
the Negro housing problem. | 

2. Somebody touched upon industrial housing. In certain sections of the 
country, industries employing large groups of Negroes have built a certain 
number of houses and either rented or sold them to their Negro employees. 
Other industries might be persuaded to do the same especially where Negroes 
in large numbers are employed. 

3. Nothing was said about governmental housing for Negroes, although 
this has been proposed in some sections of the country. Governmental housing 
is the name given to housing projects conducted by city, county or state. 
This committee does not believe that self-respecting Negroes want any city 
or other governmental body to build houses for them. 








HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 55 


4. Codperative housing was touched upon by one speaker. The building 
and loan associations were pointed out as the best type of codperative housing. 

5. Private enterprise housing was recommended by one speaker. This is 
where people enter into the business of building houses for Negroes for profit, 
and there is no attempt to disguise it as philanthropy, industrial welfare or 
governmental paternalism. The matter of forming such companies among 
Negroes was considered and the committee endorsed the idea. 

6. On the question of mortgage money, it seemed to have been the con- 
sensus of opinion that Negroes should form and support building and loan 
associations and also patronize those savings institutions which will loan 
money to Negroes. Attention was called to the fact that it is difficult for 
Negroes to borrow money from white insurance companies, while on the 
other hand they have been able to borrow from Negro insurance companies. 


I would like to call upon Mrs. Gordon of Philadelphia to give a 
statement on how rents can best be lowered. 

Mrs. Gordon: The Department of Welfare of Philadelphia of 
which I am an employee wished to keep down the rents of some 
of the families whom they are helping. Of course, we had no legal 
means of keeping down rent. The Director of Public Welfare sug- 
gested that we get in touch with a private agency and get a co- 
operative agreement with landlords whereby, in return for the city 
not raising their taxes, they would not only not raise rents but 
in addition would improve their properties. On the other hand 
through the Department of Welfare, the city could make numerous 
improvements in the abutting streets. We selected a little alley 
street as a place to begin. The city paved the street, the landlords 
put in stone steps, and the Department of Public Welfare provided 
flowers for flower boxes built by the tenants. The Armstrong 
Association of Philadelphia, the private agency with which we co- 
operated, organized the residents into a neighborhood improvement 
club and incidentally taught them to beautify the inside of their 
homes. It is the first time we have known of a city department, 
landlords, tenants and a private agency coming together on a com- 
mon working basis to improve housing conditions and keep rents 
down. 


Mr. Washington (continuing): 7. In the matter of decent upkeep, this 
Committee feels that it can best be obtained by landlord and tenant through 
educational methods. 

8. In the matter of segregation the Committee is opposed to involuntary 
segregation because it leads to every social ill. 


We are now in position to discuss the effect on race relations in 
residential segregation. 


56 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


AN EXPERIMENT IN INDUSTRIAL HOUSING 


Mr. Greene: Just before we go into that, you spoke about not 
touching on the industrial housing and also about the low cost of 
housing. I think the speaker that just left the rostrum made a 
very interesting comment on that situation. The Westinghouse 
Electric Manufacturing Company has been doing some industrial 
housing. They have not done as a good many corporations have 
done, built houses that could be rented cheaply. They felt that 
there was some better method of getting at this. They thought 
the thing to do was to build houses at a very reasonable rate and 
sell them to the employees at cost, so they mapped out a plan 
that has covered a number of years, and I have here two of the 
pictures. 

We have also a little magazine published by the company that 


comes out monthly. And I have here a picture of one of the thirty-. 


three houses recently completed that has been equipped by the 
Duchesne Light Company. The total cost of this property, a four- 
room house with bath, is $5,300.00. The employee pays 10% of 


that amount of money and 1% of the balance monthly until he: 


has finished his payment. After about 55% of the payment money 
is paid in, he gets a deed for this property. That has not been applied 


to colored people as yet. During five years I have been trying to 


show them the necessity of giving colored people an opportunity 


to do that, and we have gotten it this far, the management is will- 


ing to try it as an experiment. There are some facts about our folks 
we have to keep in mind, and these managements know that. We 
have gotten to the point where the management endorses and recom- 
mends that $55,000.00 be appropriated to finance the building of such 
homes for colored employees. 


NEGRO RESIDENTS AND NEIGHBORHOOD VALUES 


Mr. Frazier: There is one aspect in housing that has to do with 


the movement of the Negro population. N ormally, economic groups, . 


as they improve, move to higher rent districts, and I believe, nor- 


mally, Negro groups move. This is not found to work among 
Negroes as a rule. A Negro, for instance, will move into a neigh- . 


borhood where he is able to pay $70 rent. What happens? A panic 
takes place in that neighborhood. The white people move out in- 


stantly and the houses are empty. What do we have? We have- 





HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 5Y 


Negro families from a lower economic and cultural level taking 
these houses and taking in roomers. As soon as the landlord finds 
there are roomers, he raises the rent. It seems to me there could 
be some sort of interracial codperation whereby a more normal 
movement of Negro population might take place so that the im- 
proving economic and cultural groups will move into these better 
housing conditions. 

Mrs. Chas. L. Blinn (Cincinnati, Ohio): It seems to me the 
whole basis of race segregation in the first place is the lack of respect 
of the Negro for himself. Maybe I am wrong about that. I do 
not know why the Negro wants to live next to the white man. It 
seems to me he ought to respect his own people and enjoy his own 
people. In the second place, it seems to me race segregation has 
back of it another factor, and that is that every member that comes 
into a community must contribute value to property as well as accept 
value from property, and many times the Negro who has moved 
in has been in the position many a white man has been in. In 
other words, he has made money faster than he has risen culturally. 
Many a community has objected just as seriously to the white family 
that has come in for just those reasons. 

I believe you will realize that only within the last generation 
woman has had any industrial chance or any other chance in the 
world. It has only been by persistent self-respect, by the persistent 
effort to improve and by persistent contribution of service that she 
has gotten any place and any recognition. I submit to you that 
most of these problems will be solved when the Negro respects 
himself as the son of God, believes he has the same potentialities 
that any other race has, and with that conviction he goes forth to 
better himself and make himself of value to the community. 

A. L. Foster (Canton, Ohio): I think I can answer the reason 
the Negro wants to move into the white community. It is not 
because he wants to live next to the white man but because he 
wants to respect himself, and the white people have all the good 
streets in the city and all the good houses. 

Dr. Jernagin: In answer to the lady who spoke about having 
us to stay among our own people. I think that is right if we can 
get her race, in any city, not to make any difference when they 
come to looking after the welfare of the city, and to make streets 
and conditions in Negro sections as beautiful as they will have them 
in their own section. There are only a few cities where those in 
authority will do this. 


58 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION AND RACE RELATIONS 


Mr. Dickerson (Ohio State University, Columbus, 0.): As long 
as we have residential segregation we will have segregation in schools. 
Residential segregation produces separate schools right here in this 
city; the two schools we have are separated; and in Columbus there 
is the Champion Avenue School that is becoming a school consist- 
ing chiefly of colored children because it is a segregated district. 

Dr, Burton: I wonder why we should be accused of wanting to 
get away from ourselves when we are trying to raise our standard 
of living? It has been pointed out that our people move into these 
better neighborhoods, not because they are so fond of white people 
but because they are fond of better homes. We have had this situa- 
tion in Chicago. Our people have moved into certain districts in 
Chicago where formerly they have not lived. A family moves in 
having been induced to move in by some scheming real estate man 
so that he could buy property at reduced prices and sell it at an 
enhanced value. Negroes have gotten into districts in Chicago like 
Grand Boulevard. As they have gotten into these homes, many 
of the white people have moved out because they became alarmed. 
Some of them thought that Negroes thought more of white people 
than they thought of themselves. That was not it. As the Negroes 
acquire more wealth they, naturally, want to move into better 
homes, and as the white people are so afraid of them, it is to the 
benefit of the Negro that they desire to move out and let them come 
into these districts. 

Mr. Thompson: I want to know wherein it is advisable for the 
Negro to voluntarily colonize if permitted to do so. 

Mr. Martin: We ought not to overlook that there is large room 
for improvement among ourselves in cultivating Negro self-respect. 
If we will do that we will recognize ourselves and we will com- 
municate to others the fact that we have among ourselves the ability 
of making superior Americans. We have our own chance, we can 
develop a means and awaken a purpose which no sort of oppression 
can restrain. | 

L. R. Mitchell (Lima, Ohio): I think this is serious and yet 
there is one vital point that is at the basis of all of it. There is 
unrest. There is an attempt to get out of a certain standardized 
community. Why is it? It is because of our educational system. 
We are all together, we are trained according to the same ideals, 
and that of itself has an effect. And you will notice that these peo- 
ple who are aiming to get away from the district in the back alley 
are usually people who have had some training with their white 


~ 





HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 59 


brother. The white teacher has taught them about their common 
ideal and that has had its effect, and, of course, having the same 
potentialities they would have the same inclinations. The white 
man, after he gets so far, attempts to get away from certain sec- 
tions. They are getting away, the standards are changing. And 
standards change with the Negro. He is going to want to affiliate 
with those of a common standard, whether white or black. It is a 
matter of seeking the level. That is Americanism, and the Negro 
is seeking and looking for it. 

Mr. Thomas: We have said very much about how property de- 
preciates when Negroes move into a section. We have not said 
anything about how it appreciates in many places where Negroes 
move in, and we can cite a good many places where property has 
appreciated in value since the coming of the Negroes. 

Bishop W. J. Walls (Charlotte, N. C.): We had in mind that 
nobody who lives in an unfurnished or neglected community stays 
there in order to improve it unless he is a very wealthy man. It 
is impossible for the average person to improve a community the 
average of which is low in residence. In North Carolina we have 
three cities that illustrate the voluntary, the involuntary and accepted 
segregation. 

In the city of Charlotte we have the involuntary segregation. It 
is impossible to move out of sections, and if one makes an en- 
croachment he is stopped there and the white people never move 
away. As a result of that the people in Charlotte are at a dis- 
advantage in improving their moral standard and it is an embarrass- 
ment to those trying to improve their status. 

Then we have in the city of Winston-Salem accepted segrega- 
tion, because the state and community have granted, by recent de- 
cision of the courts, that he does not have to be confined and is 
permitted to move at his own discretion. As a result of that and a 
system of great codperation there that has helped to give the Negro 
his homes, he has perhaps the best housing section in the city. 

We have in the city of Durham voluntary segregation, led by 
organized community improvement agencies, principally by the North 
Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, which has proven to be one 
of the finest residential sections of the city and is the envy of the 
people who live in other communities and would like to have such 
advantages as the colored people have in that city. As a Jew once 
said: “If you permit me to live among my own people, I will live 
there by my own choice and I will find a place, but if in a democ- 
racy you say I must live there,” he says, “I’ll be hanged if Tll 
do it.” 


60 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Dr. Haynes: We want this to be interracial. We have called a 
number of speakers, white and colored. Do not get the colored side 
of this so filled up that we do not give the other side an opportunity 
to say what they have to say. We have striven very hard to have 
this an interracial conference by having both sides here in about 
equal numbers. Let us make every effort to have discussion from 
both sides. 

Mr. Martin: In this connection I wish Dr. Haynes had said also, 
we are looking only on the Negro side. An interracial conference 
ought to consider the side of the white man as well. We have our 
points of contact and this meeting seems to be in behalf of the 
Negro. The organizations calling it certainly do not intend it that 
way. 

fey. Clayton B. Wells (Wichita, Kans.): I am becoming inter- 
ested in this not so much as a race problem as an economic one. 
I had a conversation with a gentleman in Boston, a native of that 
city, some years ago, who said: “What are we Americans going to 
do? I used to live here in Boston and the Irish came and we left. 
Now,” he said, “the Italians have come in and the Irish have moved 
out.” “And,” he said, “there are already premonitions that the 
Chinese are coming in and the Italians are going to move out. I do 
not know where the white man is going to go if he continues to 
retreat.” 

I have a neighbor, the nearest pastor to my own parish, who is 
having his troubles along this same line. He had charge of a 
parish, the colored people came in, the white man began to re- 
treat. Well, my friend found himself in such a mixed parish that 
he moved his charge. Some of them kept their ground and moved 
out about a mile and a half, out of the city. A few days ago I met 
him and he said: “We are going to have the same trouble again,” 
and he is beginning to be a convert to the idea of segregation. [ 
told him I hoped he would behave as a Christian. 

James Barrick (Ohio State University): I have come to the 
conclusion that it is from just such a meeting as this, where white 
people can get to understand the viewpoint of their colored neigh- 
bors, that good is going to come. I think the trouble is that the 
white people do not understand. Therefore when the gentleman 
mentioned that this was getting to be one-sided, it seems to me we 
need the one-sided statements more than anything else, so that it 
will clear up any misunderstanding and let the white people under- 
stand the other side more. 


Mr. Washington: I am sorry we have to bring this discussion 
of housing to a close. 


HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 61 


Mr. James H. Robinson: I cannot let Miss Campbell leave the 
room without saying that she has been the great chairman of the Negro 
Welfare Association for a period of five years, she has helped to do its 
work, think out its work and fight its battles. 

Mr. Sudduth: I think it will be in order to entertain a motion to 
thank Miss Campbell for her services this morning. (Motion sec- 
onded and carried unanimously by standing vote.) 


SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION ON 
III. HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS * 


A. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES 
1. Inadequate Negro housing facilities in most cities, produces congestion, 
health, safety and moral hazards. Negroes invariably forced to live 
where conditions are worse. 
2. Rental disproportionately high in Negro districts. 
3. Evil effects of efforts at enforced Negro segregation. 


B. EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS 
1. Gradual creation of Negro building and loan associations making 
possible good Negro residence districts; e.g., Walnut Hill in Cincinnati. 
2. Negroes found to have a better record than general population for 
maintaining order and preserving property in Cincinnati. 
3. Equal enforcement of housing ordinances coming from certain localities. 


* Made by Professor Earle Edward Eubank, Department of Sociology, Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati. 


CHAPTER IV 
THE MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION * 


Chairman: The topic of this afternoon is the Growth of the In- 
terracial Movement, and, it seems to me that the two thoughts to keep 
in mind are first, the “Inter” and second, the “Movement.” This 
morning we kept approaching certain unanswered questions—such 
questions as how to get the white people of the community to 
recognize the necessity for a definite program of public health for 
the colored people; or how to get the codperation of the colored 
people in the procedure and the policies necessary to improve hous- 
ing. I take it that this interracial movement is the experimental 
effort to answer just such questions, because it is founded on the 
idea that no decision and no policy involving two races will work 
in any community unless it has the acceptance of both races. If 
this be true, then it means that both races must participate in 
facing the problem at the very beginning in order to insure the 
acceptance of conclusions as a working program for that community. 
Evidently this is the theme that we are to discuss this afternoon— 
the methods of organization and the national and local policies 
which have developed out of the interracial movement. Dr. Swartz 
will present a statement for the Discussion Committee in charge of 
this topic, and I shall ask him to take charge. 

Dr. Charles B. Swartz (Chicago, Ill.): We have four discussion 
leaders, as you will see, under policies—local and national. I¢ 
seems wise to group the methods of organization and policies to- 
gether, and ask these people to speak for five minutes on a cer- 
tain topic. You will ask your questions on the topic on which 
these different people speak. At the close of the address by Dr. 
Miller there will be further time for discussion. I believe it well 
to ask Dr, Alexander if he will answer certain questions that have 
come up in regard to this interracial movement and its growth. 
Dr. Miller is not here yet and we will ask Miss Bryson who is 
identified with the Y. W. C. A. to speak on the interracial move- 
ment among the student group. 


* Thursday, 2:15 p.M., March 26, 1925. Miss Mary Van Kleeck, presiding. 
62 





_ MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION _ 63 


THE INTERRACIAL ASPECTS OF THE Y. W. C, A. 


Miss Gladys Bryson (New York City): As I speak, I hope you 
will understand I am talking for that section of the Y. W. C. A. 
known as the National Student Council, which gathers within itself 
100,000 women or more—women students. You can use your im- 
agination and believe many things I say are true equally of the 
hundred thousand men students in their national student council, 
although we do work somewhat differently. 

This morning, once or twice, despair was faced because we did not 
understand each other. First of all, in our National Student Coun- 
cil we always consider ourselves as an interracial group. We find 
ourselves in white and colored schools alike; we find ourselves with 
white and colored secretaries, both groups having the same responsi- 
bilities through our executive committee and the National Board. 
We find ourselves working with white and colored students and 
faculties in the system we know as our council system, and in our 
executive committee. You cannot know how much we hope from 
our council system. In a country as big as ours, it is of course 
impossible that all of its policies and duties could be controlled by 
one central office however centrally located that might be. That is 
one reason why we have chosen to delegate our responsibility to 
council groups throughout the country. ‘So you will find in the 
east, three or four separate groups of students working around a 
central conference unit. Most all of you have heard of Blue Ridge. 
We have a group of students elected at that place and through the 
year they plan our policies and work in the schools and colleges 
and for the Central Executive Committee. Those councils through- 
out the country are interracial, proportionately to the number of 
colored schools in the section. For instance, of nineteen council 
members in the southern states, five are colored students; of the 
nine council members in the east, one is a colored student and so on. 

One of the chief things the Council concerns itself with is the 
encouragement of study of interracial conditions in schools and col- 
leges. There are constant suggestions in letters, lectures and bulle- 
tin and speakers who are available—white and colored. Groups of 
white and colored students gather together to discuss the things 
that are common problems. In this conference there are both white 
and colored students whose expenses are being paid by these coun- 
cils; that is, the executive committees of which I speak, which are 
interracial groups. The staff is colored which in the beginning 
administered only colored schools, but more and more they are hav- 
ing exactly the same relationship to the white schools in the regions 


64 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


that the white secretary is having, and more and more white sec- 
retaries are being invited to come to the colored schools. 

Chairman: If you have no objection I would like to have Miss 
Bowles of the National Board, Y. W. C. A., continue this discussion 
since both she and Miss Bryson represent the National Board. 

Miss Eva D. Bowles (New York City): In the first place, I 
hope this group of people here assembled will try to realize with 
me what this movement is and realize it is one of the lay move- 

ments of the church—or lay-Christian movement; also we are a 
‘movement of women and girls. You might like to begin thinking 
that the Y. W. C. A. is an interracial organization and that the 
contribution the Y. W. C. A. is giving toward interracial under- 
standing is very definite. I would like to bring to this group the 
fact that the Y. W. C. A. antedates any other organizations in 
its interracial effort. Beginning with the organization of our board 
in 1906, and then in 1907 at Asheville, N. C., it was taken up 
by white women in interracial meetings as the first step. Our aim 
is that there should be but one movement; there can be but one 
Y. W. C. A. as there cannot be any such thing as a colored Y. W. C. A. 
There may be a Y. W. C. A. among colored people. Our staff of 
national secretaries are not segregated; we all belong to our specific 
departments. I should like to tell you the people who really make 
the policies of the National Board are white and colored women and 
for some time we have had on our most important committees colored 
women—colored women in our city department and two colored 
women in the industrial department and a colored woman just being 
added in the greater research department. At the last convention, 
the National Board elected a colored woman to be a member of the 
National Board. 

Leaving our National situation and coming to our local situation, 
our attempt is very definite. As white and colored secretaries work- 
ing together, we bring the realization that it is an interracial 
movement to our doors, a responsibility to all the girls in the 
community. 

The Y. W. C. A. which is composed of a diversity and complexity 
of groups of the whole community and the Y. W. C. A. in a com- 
munity is not meeting its full responsibility until all the girls are 
taken into consideration. And, concretely, in our industrial work 
we try to bring to the consciousness of our whole Association that 
the girls who work, white and colored, in industry, are interdependent 
each on the other. There cannot be an industrial movement among 
white girls and one among colored girls, but an industrial movement 
which is one and the same. 





MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION _ 65 


Just one more thing as to publicity. We never attempt to herald 
the things we are doing, but try to develop them in a natural way— 
in any way that creates attention to the thing accomplished, because, 
after all, the movement that I represent is one which takes into 
consideration the spiritual values of all women. Our great object 
is not only to help the colored women and colored girls, but that all 
women and all girls shall understand each other. 

Charman: We shall now have ten minutes for discussion of 
the topic under the two-minute rule. 

Dr. Haynes: I would like to ask Miss Bowles the exact steps 
taken locally in getting their committees organized and what type 
the organization is? 

Miss Bowles: We use the word device—a “device” was formed 
some thirteen years ago to have an interracial committee. We did 
not call it that then, but it was really an interracial committee. 
It is composed of an equal number of white and colored women; also 
composed of white women of different experiences and background, 
and the same applies to colored women. ‘Through this committee and 
under its administration all our work is accomplished. As you can see, 
it means an understanding of the races. 

Dr, Haynes: How do you get these women? How do they relate 
themselves back to the two groups they represent ? 

Miss Bowles: The white women are selected from the Board of 
Directors and the colored women from the Board of Management 
of the Colored Women’s Branch. 

Dr. Haynes: Are there any associations where they have colored 
women serving on the Central Board? 

Miss Bowles: There are eight states north of the Mason and 
Dixon line where colored women serve as members of the board of 
directors; also there are colored women who are members of tc 
committees of the board. 

Dr. Haynes: The point I wanted to bring out, Madam Chairman, 
is this: that I think the Y. M. OC. A. and the Y. W. C. A. more 
than other organizations have gone at least that far in the direc- 
tion of recognizing the colored men and women as constituent parts 
of the community. That is a point I think well worth finding out. 

Chairman: Are there any questions? 


STUDENTS TRYING TO SOLVE RACE PROBLEMS 


Miss Emogene Johnston (Ohio State University, Columbus, 0.) : 
We have students forming a kind of organization, in which we 
work hand in hand with other students, and as an outcome of 


66 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


the effort we have a forum, an interracial forum. At this forum 
we discuss the questions interesting to the students. We have 
9,000 students at Ohio State University; about 350 are colored 
and 100 more from the Orient. We all join together and sit at 
the table, eat and sing together and then have under discussion the 
problems that come before us. The white men and women learn 
to know the colored. We establish a basis by which we know each 
other and by doing that, Ohio State feels we-have come closer to 
solving the questions and difficulties, threshing out our problems 
around a common table. Everybody has a right to come to that 
place. We all know public opinion has to be educated. In the his- 
tory of the interracial movement, we would like to say that the 
- Ohio State is entitled to at least a page. We feel, as students, we 
have a big part and will solve this problem; but, of course, until 
we do solve it on our own campus, we cannot solve it elsewhere. 

Miss Frances Williams (New York City): May I call on Blanche 
Dix who is the secretary and knows of the central region? 

Miss Blanche Dia (Northwestern Univ., Chicago): The central 
region is composed of the schools and universities in this region, 
which, you know, contains many of the largest universities we have— 
Chicago, Northwestern, Ohio State, Overlook, Peabody and a lot 
of others. We are trying to work in this as part of the Y. W. C. A., 
and where it is impossible to work in the interracial group as part, 
we work it as an individual thing, and connect it up with the work 
just the same. It is the policy of the Y. to have a regular commis- 
sion. The chairman of the interracial commission is to see that 
all these groups that have interracial work are connected with each 
other. We have common ideals and common ideas and try to put them 
over so that every one can feel they are a part of the movement. 
The students are not asleep to this; they are very much awake to 
the fact that it is up to them to help solve the great problem. One 
of our chief aims is to become friendly toward each other. We 
feel if we become friendly and know each other in a friendly way 
we will see we are more nearly together than we thought we were. 

Miss Frances Littel (Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio): I would 
like to tell what we are trying to do in bringing a better under- 
standing and a deeper understanding between the girls of all races. 
We started last year in having interracial, colored and white, dis- 
cussion groups. We brought up our problems, but we felt we 
were not getting anywhere, making ourselves feel worse and not find- 
ing a concrete solution. This year we have tried to put on a series 
of meetings and at these meetings no distinction is made between 
any race. We try to put across the idea that all the girls in the 





MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION _ 67 


college are just a group coming together from different parts of 
the world, having a different background, and we want a chance 
to know their background better. We make no distinction and I 
think it has worked out much better than other schemes. Another 
year we are considering putting the Y. W. C. A. into this, making 
it educational. 

Ernest L. Ackley (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.) : 
I want to tell what we are doing in the South. We have student 
forums for Negro and white and we are discussing not only racial 
difficulties but difficulties we have in common. 

Chairman: I am sorry we cannot have more discussion. From 
the discussion we have had by students present, I think we all agree 
that the undergraduates are teaching us something. 


PRINCIPLES OF INTERRACIAL ORGANIZATION 


Dr. Alexander: I have been requested to answer this question: 
What kind of a constitution should a local interracial committee 
have? The answer I would give is that it should have whatever sort 
it needs, the emphasis being not on the form of the organization, 
but upon an idea—a spiritual idea—rather than the form of an 
organization. 

I was also asked to answer: How to organize an interracial com- 
mittee? There again we are going back to a mechanism. In every 
community I have seen, there are a few people who are open-minded 
and who have certain things in common. At least, have enough in 
common to be willing to sit down together and try to look together 
at their common problems in the community. Those are the people 
around home and those are the only sort with whom you can form 
an interracial group in the community. Find them! Bring them 
together and set them at work trying to discover their responsibility 
in the community. We are thinking not in terms of white or 
colored, but of all racial groups. . 

Now it is not very profitable to get people together to talk, and 
your fundamental problem is the problem of attitude. I don’t think 
a man’s attitude was ever changed by a direct attack—you never 
change him with a stick or club. You probably change the attitude 
of people first by bringing them into perfectly human contacts with 
others. Second, by bringing them into the presence of some given 
task and setting them at work at some common task, out of which, 
more than anything else, the proper attitude should come. 

Right attitudes are by-products of other things and therefore the 
fundamental thing for this group is that they shall find something— 


68 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


some things to be done, and get together to get them done. You 
have done much more when you go with a man to do something, 
than when you simply do something for him. The difficulty is to 
eliminate that delightful sensation of doing something for someone. 

Colored people have as much to contribute to the solution of 
America’s race problem as the white. It cannot be done by either 
group alone. It must be done together and there must be a larger 
appreciation of that fact. It will never be done until we do realize 
our responsibility and begin working together at a common task. 
What will an interracial group do? They will do whatever things 
are to be done first, depending entirely on the community, not 
spending too much time in talking. Better find one or two con- 
crete things needed and get them done. 

You say, and we realize that quite clearly, that after all, these 
things we are talking about are not fundamental; but we must, in 
this country, change the community’s attitude on this whole ques- 
tion. I believe it is sound philosophy to say the attitude will be 
changed—not by the things you say to a community, but by the 
things a community does. If you could lift the whole Negro popula- 
tion out of the slums in the next twenty years, improve their living 
conditions, you will have gone further toward changing the attitude 
of the community in which they live, than in any other way. Lift a 
man out of a mud hole and you elevate him in the opinions of men. 

Mrs. Lula E. Lawson (Chicago, Ill.): Two years ago, in our 
branch of the Y. W. C. A. that does work among the colored girls, 
we did not understand our responsibility in helping to bring about 
a proper feeling in our whole state. Our girls are included in 
the Y. W. C. A. just as all girls are, but some of the principals did 
not quite understand why colored girls had to be a part of that 
organization. There was one especially, and in order not to an- 
tagonize that one principal, we did not go to her and tell her it 
was right, but we turned around to make friends, getting her inter- 
ested in what we were doing and in that way she was attracted to 
our program for colored girls and our ideals and standards, working 
and codperating to help all the girls of Chicago. We are working 
along in our high schools; our girls get together in council. 

We have a woman of the board of directors that wanted to inform 
her husband so he would let her work for an organization that was 
doing work specifically for colored people and she did not know 
how to get him in that frame of mind. She invited one or two 
members of the staff for tea and we took along two volunteers. We 
met this gentleman in his home and he was so surprised to know 





MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 69 


we were such nice folks. He was willing after that to go with his 
wife to our branch. 

Miss Constance C. Fisher (Cleveland, Ohio): We formed an in- 
terracial group and are trying to get people to belong to this group. 
We are trying to find little things in which we can help. One of 
the members of the committee went into a bank one day and a 
teacher had a group of students there for inspection. One of the 
workers in the bank noticed a white and colored girl walking arm 
in arm in the room and he called attention to that. The teacher 
said, “What do you mean?’ He said, “Look at those two girls 
walking together with locked arms!’ She said, “Well, why not?” 
After a moment or so he said, “I guess you are right; why not?” 
We are trying to do little things like that where we find we can 
change the attitude. 

Dr. Burton: One of the most encouraging things to me is the 
new interest and attitude of our schools, both among the student body 
and staff, as well as the new interest our churches are manifesting 
in this matter. A few weeks ago I was invited by one of the pro- 
fessors of the University of Chicago to come and address a class 
in psychology on race relations. They gave me a whole hour to 
talk about it as I wanted to, and when I was through, asked if I 
could come back the following day and consume another hour telling 
more and answering certain questions the students wanted to ask. 
It was a most delightful experience for me and very revealing in a 
good many ways. 

One question was asked by the professor himself: “Suppose we 
should find ourselves in the midst of another unfortunate race riot, 
what could social agencies or churches or interracial commissions do 
to help the situation?” I said, “If you wait until a race riot is 
impending, you might as well try to drive back an avalanche. It 
seems to me the thing you are doing here is the thing that will 
make it impossible to have any race riots in the future.” 

In Chicago we have an interracial commission that has grown 
up, partly because of the race riots there in 1919. Our Chicago 
Church Federation has been taking the lead. The Federal Council 
of Churches came along with a program through Dr. Haynes who 
made a visit to Chicago. We have a regularly organized commis- 
sion composed of 100 leading white and colored citizens of Chicago 
and we are going to function along the lines that have been indicated 
here. 

Chairman: Will Mr. Philo C. Dix, of the State Y. M. C. A., 
Louisville, Ky., take up the discussion at this point? 


%0 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


THE INTERRACIAL MOVEMENT IN KENTUOKY 


Mr. Dix: The organization of the interracial work in Kentucky 
took place five years ago when a commission was appointed by 
the state Y. M. C. A. The Commission is still affiliated with 
that organization, though it contains a number of members not 
officially connected otherwise than in the interracial work. We em- 
ploy a state interracial work director, Dr. Bond. In the first years 
he had associates with him who gave their entire time to the organ- 
ization, first, of organizing interracial committees in all counties of 
the state in which there were any considerable Negro people,. which 
amounted to 60 out of 120 counties in the state. These interracial 
county committees were composed of both white and colored people 
and their task was to meet and consider the conditions in the county 
as they related to the two races, and iron out those occasions for 
friction which were usually found to exist. Most of these difficulties. 
centered about such questions as the schools, the use of the public 
moneys, the administration of justice, the provision of equal facili- 
ties for the Negroes where the law required separate facilities to 
be afforded. On school questions, these county committees have 
rendered very valuable service in ironing out difficulties; also in 
helping smooth over occasions for race feeling due to crime and 
attempts at lynching and things of that sort. These county inter- 
racial committees have been able to head off lynchings, and other evi- 
dences of race feeling. Dr. Bond, who has been very closely related 
to them, can give you the details. 

Following up this work we have a state Interracial Commission 
that handles such matters as relate to the railroad companies, provi- 
sions in depots and other places for colored people; dealing with the 
state officials as they deal with the schools; dealing with the attorneys 
to try to bring about conditions that afford the Negro equal justice 
in the courts—all the ways in which a state organization can come 
in touch with the problems which are causing the friction—that 
is the way these committees are seeking to carry out the plan. 


LYNCHINGS PREVENTED BY INTERRACIAL COMMITTEES 


Chairman: Will Dr. James Bond, of the Kentucky Interracial 
Commission, close the discussion ? 

Dr. Bond: I shall be glad to give one or two instances of the 
work as Mr. Dix indicated. In the last four or five years, we 
know these county interracial committees, together with the activity 
of the director, have prevented at least five lynchings, and humanly 


MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 71 


speaking, that is something. At one place, a Negro committed a 
cold-blooded murder and immediately they began to talk of lynch- 
ing him. We had a committee there and we got in touch with 
the colored man on the committee and he called a meeting of the 
colored members of the committee and they passed resolutions ex- 
pressing the deepest regret at the crime, disavowing any sympathy 
whatever with the murderer. They sent that letter to the members 
of the family of the man who was killed and they got the white 
committee together. The sheriff and the jailer were members of 
the interracial committee. The sheriff issued a statement urging 
the people to let the law take its course and the family itself was 
induced to write a public letter saying it did not want the family 
disgraced in that manner. The Negro had a trial and was electro- 
cuted in due process of law. 

In another place, the mob was forming and threatening not only 
to lynch the Negro but burn up the colored settlement. We had 
a committee there and the colored members of the committee got 
together with the white members and decided on this expedient: 
They struck off—the colored members did—a bill setting forth their 
regrets and offering a reward in their own name for the arrest and 
conviction of the criminal. In the streets where the mob was 
forming, they went around and distributed that bill. The mob read 
it and disappeared gradually. The Negro was taken, tried and 
electrocuted. 

Just the other day I wrote to the committee at a certain place. 
The feeling was high. I telephoned a prominent colored man in that 
place and asked him to get hold of Judge K—— and prevent a 
lynching at whatever cost. He said to me, “Don’t you worry about 
it, Brother Bond, there’s not going to be a lynching, for the com- 
mittee is on the job.” I believe if it had not been for the interracial 
committees there would have been five or six Negro lynchings in 
the state of Kentucky in the last five years, instead of one. 

Dr. Haynes: 1 would like to ask how you get the local com- 
mittee set up and its relationship to the state committee? 

Dr. Bond: I went and saw the colored people first and asked 
them to name or suggest white people they themselves would like 
to put on such a committee because all kinds of people are ap- 
pointed and if you go to a community and select, generally the 
wrong person is likely to be selected. So the colored people selected 
members for the white part of the committee, and selected their 
own members, too. This thing often happens; the white man will 
say, “Well, now, here is John, my chauffeur. I have known him 
all my life and he is a fine chauffeur, put him on the committee.” 


72 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


John might not be at all the kind you want; you want to get rep- 
resentative colored men, who stand for what is best in the com- 
munity. Get that kind of people together to organize. 

In one place the white people said, “We don’t need any inter- 
racial committees; it’s a good thing, but we get along the best way 
in the world; we have the best kind of colored people in the country 
right here.” Some colored man got up in the meeting and they 
“swapped” compliments for a while, but within the next few weeks 
one man came near being lynched in that community under the 
most aggravating conditions. 

Before you have a meeting, get the colored men to sit down 
together and make up a program. Put in black and white the 
needs of the community. There is no use going into committee just 
to talk; put down the things: police protection, water, school build- 
ings—whatever it is, have a program when you meet the white mem- 
bers of the committee and face the conditions. The big thing is to 
have the white and colored come together and work on at least one 
problem; one problem at a time, but have a program and many good 
results will come from it. 


INTERRACIAL MOVEMENT IN INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 


C. O. Lee (Indianapolis, Ind.): There were two interracial com- 
mittees previous to the most recent interracial committee, one from 
the Church Federation and one from the Y. M. C. A. We felt, 
however, there ought to be a much larger representation in inter- 
racial groups, so the Council of Social Agencies was instrumental 
in gathering together representative citizens—25 colored and 25 
white—into an interracial committee of the Council of Social Agencies. 
We organized that committee with functional sub-committees; one 
on health, one on records, one on economic justice, one on educa- 
tion, one on civic improvement. 

We have done some investigation work, particularly on the Health 
Committee, investigating such questions as opportunities for train- 
ing colored nurses at city hospitals and for the entrance of colored 
internes and colored physicians. We have tuberculosis hospitals into 
which we felt more colored people should be admitted. They are 
admitted at present on a basis of percentage of the population which is 
about one-tenth of the county, and the prevalence of that disease 
is larger among the colored people. We felt the entrance to this 
hospital ought to be on a basis of the prevalence of the disease 
rather than on a percentage to the population. We are striving to 
study the questions, taking up now the housing situation; we are 





MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION = 7% 


getting ready to make a survey of the housing conditions as affect- 
ing the colored people. 

_ H. W. Borst (Indianapolis, Ind.): Our committee is two years 
old; the first problem we faced was a lack of knowledge and of 
information on the part of the white members relative to colored 
leadership, such as that of Booker Washington, how to realize the 
thing for which this man stood and something of his accomplishment. 

We took one year to study certain books and people and at the 
end of the year found we were ready to lay out a policy for one 
year which we could adhere to. That policy had eight points, the 
first of which was to make a larger committee. At that time we 
had only six members, 3 colored and 3 white. We sent a request 
to the President of the State Federation of white women’s clubs, 
asking them in making their year’s program to put in two or three 
subjects we would suggest which would open the racial discussion. 
After that we organized a speaker’s bureau. We want to have 
people well informed who go out and make speeches. We are con- 
templating in this year’s policy to have a loan library and put in 
anything we can get on the colored people. We have the codpera- 
tion of the librarian who has issued to us a list of valuable things. 
We have meetings where we discuss the accomplishments and the 
doings of the Negro and now we are about to issue a paper called 
the Friendly Citizen containing book reviews and everything neces- 
sary to educate our white friends. 

Chairman: In leaving the topic on the Growth of the Interracial 
Movement I should like to say just one thing. Dr. Alexander pointed 
out in considering the organizing of interracial committees that 
colored people have as large a contribution to make, at least to 
the problem of race relations, as have the whites. I would like 
to go one step further and say that the colored people of this coun- 
try have as much to contribute to the social and economic problems 
of the entire country as have the white, and I should like to point 
out that although we recognize that all these problems have their 
special racial aspects, nevertheless, housing, health, industry—all the 
topics we are discussing, have also fundamental common phases, for 
they are problems we have together. We cannot solve them wisely 
on a racial basis without recognizing that the right procedure for 
dealing with them must be developed in the light of their effects 
upon us all, regardless of race. In other words, in considering the 
relation of the colored people to the social agencies, we must not 
think of them only as concerned with the relation of white and 
colored, but rather as opportunities for white and colored to co- 
operate in solving common problems. By working together on the 


74 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


common problems of our country, we do much to promote racial 
understanding. Although the problems may have racial aspects, 
nevertheless they must be dealt with on the broad basis of what is 
best for the entire community. 

Chaurman: I will call on Dr. Herbert A. Miller, Professor of 
Sociology, Ohio State University, who will address us on Principles 
of Amicable Interracial Contact. 

Dr. Miller then spoke in part as follows: 


The race problem is the product of attitudes. These attitudes can best 
be dealt with by religion and by science. The method of religion makes 
no necessary effort to discover the causes, but it nevertheless often secures 
a right-about of the attitudes. Not since immediately following the Civil 
War has there been such an effort as now to bring the influence of religion 
to bear on the race problem. It is a tremendous power, but it has definite 
limitations. It does not touch those who are untouched by religion; when 
there is a loss of faith then race prejudice may return; it may become 
bigoted. The K.K.K. is just as devout as this Interracial Conference. 

Psychoanalysis cures pathological conditions by explaining them. That 
is, when the origin of a disturbance is disclosed, the trouble tends to dis- 
appear. Modern science is now able to take away all the basis for prejudice, 
and sooner or later when its data have seeped into the popular mind prac- 
tically all the attitudes which now prevail in race prejudices will be so 
contrary to common knowledge that one will have to advertise himself as a 
fool if he holds them. 

One of the first steps necessary to getting a perspective is to compare 
the attitudes which prevail toward the Negro, for example, with those 
towards women and Jews. It will quickly be seen that the same things are 
felt and said under widely different conditions, and gradually the absurdity 
of them will appear. Then they will yield. The belief in the inferiority of 
the Negro and the unassimilability of the Japanese is at present honest 
rationalization which the facts do not support. These scientific facts, how- 
ever, will have an inertia unless there is a religious motive to accelerate 
their application. 

Although I think every intelligent person ought to be optimistic, I am 
inclined to think that there was never before such a promise of sloughing 
off the false ideas which make the race problem of the world so ominous. 
Take, for example, the prevailing ideas about Negro criminality. It is based 
upon the statistics of Negroes in jail, but modern criminology has demon- 
strated that criminality is inextricably associated with social conditions, 
and that when the social conditions have been resolved to comparable 
formulas, excessive Negro criminality becomes a myth. It was the science 
of criminology and not direct consideration of race problems that cleared 
up this matter. And ‘so it is that biology, psychology, anthropology and 
sociology are simply taking out the props from under the most popular myths 
with regard to the difference between races. It is merely psychoanalysis 
applied on a large scale. 


REPORT OF DISCUSSION COMMITTEE ON THE INTERRACIAL MOVEMENT 


Chairman: The Discussion Committee will report through Dr. 
Bond, its Chairman: 


1, The Committee was interested in the idea which seemed to center on 
some given interest of the student body, forgetting for the time being that 





MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 15 


one group is a member of one race and another group is a member of another 
race. The idea commends itself to the Committee, that these meetings which 
disregard all kinds of distinction and call attention to the common problems 
of the student body, must be helpful and should be encouraged. 

2. The Committee wishes to raise the question whether it would be a 
wise thing for this interracial work to concentrate only on race relations 
between white and black races in this country. You can think of reasons 
probably, why that should be done. We have a background; we have some 
tradition, some history, and if we should concentrate on this problem between 
us and solve it in the right way—in a way that is agreeable to the white 
and black people—then we would have a basis for the solution of the problems 
that affect other races in their relations. The Committee would like to have 
an expression of opinion on that point. 

3. Dr. Alexander said the genesis of the interracial commission is an 
idea—not rules and regulations. We note, therefore, that an interracial 
commission in the state or community grows out of and is made necessary 
because of interracial relations in local communities, and the organization 
grows out of the work instead of having the work grow out of the organiza- 
tion. That cannot be too strongly stated. 

4. We wish to call attention also to the importance of interracial com- 
mittees and interracial work to prevent misunderstandings and outbreaks 
rather than to stop something after it has started. The way to prevent 
race riots in Cincinnati or Chicago, is not to try to do it after they have 
started. Way back, two or three years ago we began to remove the causes 
of friction. A better understanding has been restored over and over again 
in the work throughout the South. The big work of the interracial committee 
and commissions is not to put out the fire after it has started, but to prevent 
the fire starting. Time and time again we have had that experience. Remove 
the cause of friction and you have peace. 

5. Your Committee is of the opinion that there can never be harmony 
as long as there are glaring inequalities and injustice with one group or 
another, facing us in this or any other community. Justice, therefore, is 
the one basis of interracial good will and codperation. 


Chairman: We have now 25 minutes for questions and discussion 
of this report. 


INTERRACIAL PROBLEMS ARE WORLD-WIDE 


fev. Henry S. Lewper (New York City): We get the impres- 
sion (at least I do) that the line of progress is definitely along the 
path of directing attention to the fact that these racial prejudices 
and mob prejudices are universal and not specifically confined to 
one group. From the Committee’s report, we get the thought about 
specifically centering our attention on one problem between white 
and black in this country, and then attacking the larger problem. 
It has been my privilege to live in China and during that time I 
spent considerable time working on the interracial feeling between 
the Japanese and Chinese. I had considerable experience in Korea 
where there is considerable feeling between the Koreans and the 
Japanese. I have been back in this country for two years and a 
large part of that time I have been dealing with the interracial prob- 


76 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


lems between Indians and Americans, Chinese and Japanese and 
Americans, and between white and Negro Americans. I do not want 
to cast reflection on the Committee’s report, but until we get hold 
of the problem in its universal aspect, we will deal with only one 
phase and we will get lopsided in our thinking. We will not fit 
ourselves for the interracial movement of the world. This race feel- 
ing is gaining all over the world today; if we would deal with it 
in a statesmanlike manner, we must deal with it as it is. My 
colored brother, whose family has been here perhaps before the 
Mayflower, I find looks down on the Kingston Negro; a Japanese 
said to me, “We always look down on a Chinese.” 

Dr. Bond: In several phases, the Negro suffers as no other race 
suffers. I saw a Filipino the other day, much darker than I am, 
go into a hotel where I could not go. The largest hotels are open 
to him; he goes where he wants and there is a different attitude. We 
have to face that condition. The Japanese and Chinese do not 
suffer as we do. They can come here and go to your best hotels. 
There is a distinction. 

Mr. Chase: As has been said, the race problem is universal, and 
we have to face this. Two years ago we had Miss Crogman come 
and put on her wonderful pageant. We had 2000 people come to 
the theater and see it, sitting side by side, colored and white. Roland 
Hayes came and white and colored came to hear him. We are 
wondering whether we should take the next step and we want your 
advice. We were wondering if the next year we would not be ready 
to ask the different nations represented in our city to combine with 
the colored and white people, all making their contributions, and 
work out a pageant formed by different nations and races, to con- 
tribute to one great big picture of America. We were wondering, if 
the colored people fitted themselves into that picture, if it would 
not be a large contribution. 

Dr. Haynes: In New York four years ago we put on a pageant 
America’s Making. The only difficulty was financing. We put it 
on in a large armory and it was a tremendous gorgeous pageant 
which caught the attention of the newspapers even weeks and 
months beforehand. It included a Negro pageant with those of 
many other racial and national groups. In Chicago they put on a 
play called Fingerprints, which was performed by about 500 white 
and colored amateurs and had a fine effect in bringing together 
white and colored people. The play was written by a playwright 
who had quite a little experience in those things, and was repeated 
in several of the large churches with fine results. 

Mr. Frazier: It seems to me if we are going to concern ourselves 


MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 77 


with the solution of these problems, it would be well to tackle one 
at a time. The Japanese have an ambassador at Washington; they 
have a pretty good sized army and navy. The Chinese are pretty 
well represented too. The Indian is not so well taken care of. 
When I left Atlanta I came pretty near being put out of a Pullman. 
I feel, selfishly, that you ladies and gentlemen might begin by 
concerning yourselves with my safety as I might be put out of one 
going back. The Negro is the most despised of all races in the 
United States, and we might as well face the truth. As I traveled 
in the South a former student cautioned me as soon as I got there 
to please be careful of what I say. It seems to me America’s chief 
problem is to bring civilization into relation to the Negro. 

Dr. Miller: I agree with the last speaker that we should take 
up these problems one at a time. The students at Ohio State got 
into this same difficulty in beginning our interracial forum. We 
all know the condition the Negro faces and the opinion some white 
people have of the Negro. It seemed to the executive committee 
of the forum, there must be some reason for this; whether or not 
this reason is on a firm basis remains to be seen, but there must 
be some reason why the Japanese goes into the big hotels and 
the Negro cannot. I wanted to bring the problem before the forum 
for discussion, and the problem we brought was “What is the cause 
of racial misunderstanding?” We received many comments and we 
had many solutions offered. If there is racial misunderstanding, 
there must be a cause and by correcting these causes we can work 
it out. 

Rev. J. 8. Belboder (Dayton, Ohio): It seems to me Dr. Miller 
is asking for some place to attack the question. It is very good that 
he gave us the question and we should consider it. I am wonder- 
ing, however, if it is possible for us to do very much before we 
die? A lifetime is so short and this particular condition has existed 
so long and is so deeply engraved on the hearts and minds of the 
people. What shall we do? I think this: That we should begin 
now to train the children who are coming on to the awful condition 
that exists. If we can get teachers and school boards to realize 
the injustice that exists and teach the children that they must not 
practice these things, we shall be doing a wonderful thing. Will 
white people who represent this movement be willing to go to the 
heads of the educational boards in the different communities and get 
them to transmit this information we have now? Will they be 
willing to convert the teachers to practice a new discipline with the 
children they have to teach? The children are the ones who directly 
inherit a major part of the problem. 


78 


TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Mr. Ackley: It is just as foolish to try to settle the problems 


of race between white and black as it is to save all the people of the 


Un 
the 


ited States by sending foreign missionaries. The Japanese in 
West is perhaps as badly treated as is the Negro in the South. 


The principle on which that might be settled is not the same, the 
traditional reasons for the prejudices are different. J was thinking 
how California could settle its race problem and it came to me on 


the 


instant that it could in the way we do in the South. If you 


will try to think without prejudice what some other nations have 
had to go against and then apply them to your own South or North 
you might be able to feel less prejudicial than you do. I feel unless 


we 


think of it together we will not be able to think of it straight 


and clearly. It is perfectly all right for an interracial committee 


to 
us 


confine itself to the problem between white and Negro, but for 
as students to confine ourselves so is illogical and unchristian. 


I think we ought to take the church’s viewpoint. 


the 


about a universal problem and the Committee talked about a place — 


to 


problem, we shall be wiser as to the place to begin? Is it not true 
that this is a problem we have to handle together? That is the 


pol 


movement. 


eo ted ed 


Chairman: The Chair cannot see such a great difference between 
speakers and the Committee. Dr. Miller and Mr. Leiper talked 


begin. But is it not true that if we recognize it as a universal 


nt of this afternoon’s meeting—the growth of the interracial 


SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION ON 
IV. THE MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION * : 


The Y. W. C. A. Student Department interracial staff now serves schools 
and colleges of both races. 

The city Y. W. C. A.’s are regarding all women and girls as their 
responsibility. 

White and Negro students are trying to solve problems by forums and 
other contacts. 

Interracial committees and commissions are not mere organization 
mechanism; they are results of a spirit; of ideas. They are formed not 
for talk but for mutual action on well-planned programs; doing things 
together changes racial attitudes. 

Kentucky State Y. M. C. A. fostered the State Interracial Commission 
and county committees; the two organizations are still affiliated though 
independent. The Commission has carried a state-wide welfare program 
for full justice to Negro citizens. County committees have prevented 
several lynchings. 

Indianapolis, Ind., combined two interracial committees, started inde- 
pendently, into one organization, enlarging it by added representatives 
under the Council of Social Agencies. The Committee has studied its 
problems and is working out a program. 


* Prepared by Dr. George Edmund Haynes. 


MOVEMENT TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 79 


7. Colored people have as large a contribution to make to race relations 
as white people. 

8. Race problems are world-wide, universal. We should recognize them as 
universal but see that the place for us to begin solution is in our own 
local communities. 


CHAPTER V 
SOCIAL AGENCIES AND RACE RELATIONS * 


Chairman: We turn now to the topic Social Agencies and Race 
Relations and I will call on Dr. T. J. Woofter, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., as 
Chairman of the Committee in charge of this topic to take guidance of 
the discussion. 

Dr. Woofter: There’s not much danger of running out of dis- 
cussion on a topic as wide as this. Before I announce the topics 
to you, I want to say two things as to our attitude toward social 
agencies and the significance of the social agencies in their bear- 
ing on racial adjustments. We have a complex on the words “race 
problem” and want to get rid of it. We have more or less agreed 
in this. Every time a concrete situation came up there has been 
no disagreement as to what to do, but only disagreement on how to 
do it. The job now is to discuss the tasks and work out ways and 
means of getting them accomplished. This is true of social agencies 
as well as other phases of the program. The main thing about qj 
social agency is that you are dealing with the most direct fundamental 
approach to the human heart. When you get a human heart roused 
and focusing on these things, you are accomplishing something. We 
need always to put forth the humanitarian side rather than the social. 
For instance, the child appeals to the heart rather than to the mind. 


THE COMMUNITY VIEWPOINT 


The second thing is this: In dealing with these humanitarian 
institutions we must get into our minds the fact that we are not 
trying to benefit the colored people but the community. The humani- 
tarian aspect needs to be met, and when met, it will benefit all the 
people in the community and our communities can hold up their 
heads in pride. In other words, our job, through social agencies, 
is to get as far away from race as we can in the consideration of 
these tasks of housing, child welfare and so on, and look at them 
as social tasks involving the whole community. 

What is the first step? Napoleon told us there are many poor 
colonels but no poor regiments. The same thing is true of social 


* Thursday, March 26, 3:45 P. M. Miss Mary Van Kleeck, presiding. 
80 





SOCIAL AGENCIES AND RACE RELATIONS 81 


organizations—many poor leaders but very few poor social organiza- 
tions. The whole aspect of any humanitarian organization depends 
on the personality of the people back of it. 


THE NEGRO SOCIAL WORKER 


Mrs. Gordon: In this particular leadership into which colored 
women and colored social workers have recently come, there is no end 
of opportunity. You will pardon, I am sure, if I mention one fact— 
and I speak from experience in the Philadelphia Department of Pub- 
lic Welfare—I have had erased from my mind fear as to the ap- 
proach of the human being as a-social worker with race prejudice 
removed. As you approach the work in the social agency there need 
be no fear, for the people who are helping are not looking to the 
color but to the quality of the thing you can do. 

We have been asked in our work to handle cases of Italians and 
Jews and others, side by side with the white investigators. Help- 
ing to relieve others, serving others, we learn to serve our own race. 
We have had no friction in the type of service we have been able 
to render. In most of the agencies you will come across problems that 
turn on the Municipal Court and the question of neighborhood 
quarrels, out of which develop, in America, so many race riots. If 
the proper kind of leadership is placed in social agencies they take 
hold of it properly, and there has never been an occasion where it 
has not been stopped. Sometimes it has been only the nicknaming of 
a race—the very smallest things bring about a neighborhood quarrel. 

Mr. Frazier: I want to say something about the effort in the 
South to train for a certain type of leadership. We have had ex- 
amples where the Probation Judge appointed his colored chauffeur 
as a probation officer and in Mobile on one occasion they took the 
cook of the white probation officer and made her a colored proba- 
tion officer. In 1920 a group of social workers in New Orleans saw 
it would be necessary to educate social workers in the South; those 
educated in the North seldom come South. For the last three years 
we have had a forum for interracial codperation under the manage- 
ment of the school. We have been promised some money for the 
coming year to further our work, provided we raise the same amount. 
This school attempts to develop a definite kind of leadership in the 
South, otherwise the white people would pick out any ignorant 
type of colored woman to do social work or any “Uncle Tom” type 
of man. The Atlanta School of Social Work represents an achieve- 
ment on the part of colored and white people in the schools and 
social agencies and the interracial commission. 


82 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


A Voice: May I ask Mr. Frazier one question? Do you think 
you will be able to get those people who have been appointing cooks 
and chauffeurs to accept the trained colored social worker? 

Mr. Frazer: I do. 


EQUAL PAY FOR WHITE AND NEGRO SOCIAL WORKERS 


Chairman: ‘The next topic for discussion is, Giving the White and 
Negro Workers of Similar Rank the Same Remuneration. 

Miss Frances Williams: I want to speak about trained workers. 
We have workers who are trained to meet the same requirements 
but when it comes to salary, it is different. We are still handicapped 
with the thought that it does not take as much money for colored 
people to live as white. There is a different standard in salaries. 
They say you should not talk about money, but it does create a 
different attitude. Why should a person with the same qualifications 
do that for five, which another does for ten dollars? 

Mr. Plaskett: Does not the question of salary vary in different 
places? City organizations can pay big salaries; country persons 
get small salaries. Does not the question of salary depend on the 
worker and where he works? Some get more and some get less, 
according to the particular locality in which they work. Isn’t that 
true? 

Miss Howell: Our community finds in executive positions, due 
to the scarcity of colored workers, it is necessary to pay higher 
salaries to the colored worker than to the white. 

Mr. Lee: As far as I know, both the colored social workers and 
colored nurses do not receive less salary than the corresponding posi- 
tions paid to the white people. I think they have a scale they go 
on. I know there is one colored worker in an institution that 
receives the highest salary next to the executive officer of the 
institution. 

Chairman: This question of salaries in social work is not so 
much racial but a very big problem of getting recognition from 
Boards of Directors and spreading knowledge as to the value of 
trained social work. We have to develop appreciation on the part of 
the community of the need for trained social workers. The training 
schools are doing a great deal in that direction. Mr. Lee will con- 
tinue with the topic. 

Mr. Lee: I think this question has a great deal to do with the 
temper of the community. Indianapolis, as I heard Mr. Robinson 
say one time relative to Cincinnati, is a northern city with a southern 
exposure. We have a number of southern white people there. We 





SOCIAL AGENCIES AND RACE RELATIONS 83 


have to take that into consideration. If your community is lenient 
you can get a great deal further by way of placing colored people 
both upon boards and staffs of social agencies than you can where 
there is a sentiment against that sort of thing. 

Then, too, there are great feelings as to working for the colored 
by the white instead of working with them. May I give one illus- 
tration of a case in one point? The architects have drawn a plan, 
and the bid has been made for a new high school situated in the 
colored section, known as the Colored High School. Our high school 
students have attended the regular high schools thus far. We 
approached that question with the powers that be, asking that the 
colored people have something to say as to whether they should be 
segregated in a high school—give them some opportunity to have 
some share in saying whether their children should go in high 
schools that would be fitted with colored teachers, or whether they 
would be forced by the school board to go into the Colored High 
School. There is a big question as to whether we are to do the 
things for the colored people, issue edicts and expect them to obey, 
or whether we work and codperate with them. 

They have no share in the discussions and plannings of the 
various social work and programs of the city. It seems to me there 
is a growing feeling of responsibility upon the part of colored 
leaders in the community in which I am acquainted. With that 
feeling of growing responsibility it seems to me they are equipping 
themselves more and more adequately to take the places of responsibil- 
ity upon boards of management. It seems to me where colored 
people are involved the least we can do is to have colored representa- 
tion in proportion to the percentage of population on the boards, so 
that the colored people can be brought into the discussion. White 
people cannot understand unless they come into the close relation of 
mutual discussion relative to these many problems that come up in 
connection with social work among colored people. This is just as 
true about the workers. — 

This would be equally true in almost every situation where colored 
people are involved, that they ought to have the benefits of workers 
of their own race so they can get into the closest possible relation- 
ship in order to do the task adequately. If we are going to meet 
the tasks, we must both have representation upon our boards of 
control and upon our staffs where the social worker has to deal with 
the colored people in any given community. 


84 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


STAFFS OF AGENCIES SHOULD BE INTERRACIAL 


Chairman: I now call on Mr. John Chase of Youngstown, Ohio. 

Mr. Chase: Welfare Agencies! Just think how many there are. 
Here is a Big Brother and Sister organization which is one great 
big group of welfare agencies and over here is another big group, 
and in another place a big group dealing with the mass of ‘people, 
Camp-fire girls, playground associations. What is the big thing that 
we as interracial people can contribute to them, helping them carry 
forward in the fine spirit that is maintained? It seems to me, in 
the first group, individuals on the staffs very rarely are colored 
people, and they should have them. In our city, for instance, we 
have Allied Councils, and they have Jewish, Catholic and Protestant, 
but no colored. Why should that be? On all the staffs dealing with 
individual groups we should have colored people. Most of us belong 
to the leading groups in our own cities and when we go back we 
ought to go to our community chest boards and others and say to them 
we want on these agencies dealing with individuals representation 
from the colored group, if you have representation from Jews and _ 
Catholics and other foreigners. 

We set up institutions manned entirely by colored people and 
isn’t that just as bad as being manned entirely by white people from 
our interracial point of view? Is it not a danger we are facing 
now that great big institutions, educated, highly cultured, will estab- 
lish in brick and mortar and petrify on through the ages our 
segregation? Is it not true? You say you want staffs of colored 
people—want to give them jobs and put up colored Y. M. C. A.’s. 
You say it will relieve a lot, but is it not petrifying the real, funda- 
mental thing we do not want? ‘They will say, if we do not do 
that, we cannot do anything. We claim it is wrong. What we 
ought to do is to place on our staffs white and colored in propor- 
tion to the neighborhood; in a neighborhood where three-fourths 
are colored, have three-fourths colored on the staff and one-fourth 
white. 

Chairman: Let me remind you what was said about the policy 
of the Y. W. C. A. in having colored women appointed on the regu- 
lar staff and the directing board, and participating in all the work. 

John A. Green (Dayton, Ohio): Our family welfare work is 
gradually taking on colored workers that are working with colored 
groups. In our Juvenile Court we have colored workers; in the 
visiting housekeeper’s work we have colored workers. We have 
had no colored worker until recently in the Associated Charities. We 
are working in colored workers as we feel they are more sympa- 





SOCIAL AGENCIES AND RACE RELATIONS 85 


thetic and get better points of attack with our own people than the 
white women. 


Dr. Woofter: I would like to see a show of hands from those 
communities where colored people are employed as visiting house- 
keepers. (Many hands raised.) It looks as though there are many. 

Chairman: We must stop this discussion now and have the address 
which is on the program and then the report of the committee, I 
will now call on Mr. James H. Robinson, executive Secretary of 
the Negro Civic Welfare Ass’n, Department of the Community Chest 
and Council of Social Agencies, Cincinnati, Ohio, who will give the 
address on this topic. Mr. Robinson spoke in part as follows: 


To my way of thinking, there are two general types of community prob- 
lems, social and civic. Civic problems are those which are vitally related 
to citizenship in its larger sense. An effective approach to them may require 
the use of governmental machinery, as the public school, appeal to legislative 
enactment, law enforcement, the ballot or public funds raised through taxa- 
tion. On the other hand, one may find it necessary to resort to such forces 
as industry, commerce and the press to deal with a civic problem. 

On the other hand, there are the social problems which affect certain 
elements in the population rather than the population as a whole. Such 
problems can be handled by private philanthropy as opposed to public taxa- 
tion. The supervision of day nurseries, the administration of relief, the 
operation of orphan asylums and children’s homes, the maintenance of 
homes for the aged, and for working girls, community centers and settle- 
ment houses well indicate the nature of social problems and illustrate legiti- 
mate activities of social agencies. These two general classes of problems 
and activities, however, are not entirely distinct and unrelated. We com- 
monly think of public agencies as hedged about by technical, legal restric- 
tions and hence as inflexible. Experience has proved, however, that with 
social agencies leading the way public agencies can, within limits, bend and 
shape their policies in conformity to the wishes of social agencies insofar as 
their suggestions help rather than hinder the best interests of the com- 
munity. 

From the foregoing discussion it is easy to infer that social agencies are 
not only potent factors in dealing with social and civic problems in general 
but that they ought to be foremost in the adjustment of race relations. 
It is frequently said that every community has within it sufficient wisdom 
for the solution of its problems. Be this statement true or untrue, there 
is in every community a wealth of wisdom, skill, technique, experience, 
potential good will and even financial and material resources which could 
be used in the adjustment of race relations if they were but discovered and 
organized. 

The first step then is to form a temporary community council or clearing 
house, representing as many interests and viewpoints in the community life 
and relationship as may be worthy of consideration. The church, the lodge, 
the press, the schools, women’s clubs, the medical profession, courts, health 
departments, and private agencies, colored and white, dealing with any 
important phase of Negro life should be a part of this temporary council. 
This undertaking requires care, tact, good judgment, liberality. So manv 
of us think of ourselves as the quintessence of wisdom and virtue that we 
are apt to discount and discredit others who lack our opportunities but 
who may nevertheless be factors in the life of the community. 

The first object of this temporary community council is to make an in- 
ventory or survey of the life and conditions and resources of the com- 


86 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


munity. Like all surveys it must have a purpose, and the purpose here is 
a rather general one. It may be summed up in the following questions: 
What are the outstanding problems of the community life as regards Negro 
welfare and race relations? What are the social, civic, educational, indus- 
trial, economic, and religious resources for meeting them? How can the 
interest of these forces be won and how organized and marshalled in the most 
effective attack on the problems? 

Such a council may be able to afford an office and a paid worker, who 
should be assisted by as many volunteers as he can intelligently use. If 
it is not financially able to do this, appeal might be made to some estab- 
lished agency or organization to lend part time services of a paid worker. 

Circumstances may make impossible anything other than a small in- 
ventory, but even this will be valuable if intelligently done. But whether 
elaborate or simple, it would want to answer such questions as the following: 
1. Size of the Negro population and how it compares with other national and 
racial groups in numerical strength; 2. its tendency toward growth or decrease ; 
3. its distribution over various sections of the city; 4. kinds of houses occu- 
pied by Negroes and their availability; level of rents and prices, attitude 
of real estate men, banks, building associations and other tenants toward 
Negro tenants and home owners; 5. lines of work open to Negroes, working 
conditions, wages, the attitude of employers and other workmen toward 
them; 6. school and church facilities; 7. amusements and recreational facili- 
ties, public, private and commercial open to Negroes; 8. sanitary and health 
conditions; 9. delinquency and dependency; 10. politics and political influences ; 
11. migrant population, if any, and its problems of readjustment; 12. com- 
munity leadership; 13. policies and attitudes of newspapers and public offi- 
cials; 14. social agencies at work and their programs; 15. a program of 
betterment and reorganization to touch the most vital conditions and to 
make use of the best influences, forces and organizations on both sides of 
the color-line which might be interested. 

The uninitiated will be surprised at the amount of good will and interest 
which the survey will awaken. School teachers, social workers, and club 
women may be readily interested in a house-to-house canvass. In our 
Cincinnati survey, for instance, not only did colored teachers help, but 359 
white teachers made more than twenty thousand telephone calls to secure 
certain types of information scarcely obtainable in any other way. High 
school and university students can look up historical records, tabulate survey 
cards and compile statistics; various community organizations may offer 
endorsement, moral support and other practical assistance depending on the 
ingenuity of the leaders of the project to put them to work. Even the 
village know-alls, who are wont to parade their wisdom in the church meet- 
ings, on street corners, and in the barber shops may be invited into the 
council to match wits in the discussion of local conditions and how best 
to get at them. 

After a substantial volume of information has been obtained and duly 
verified, much careful discussion should be given to drawing conclusions and 
formulating a program. 

The Negro Civic Welfare Committee which made the survey became the 
Negro Civic Welfare Association, department of the Community Chest to 
plan, develop and coédrdinate a social service program for the Negro popula- 
tion as a whole. We believe it to be the country’s first true clearing house 
and codrdinating agency for Negro work and we try to teach the public to 
feel that it is their community council. 

Our Board of Directors comprises forty members. Thirty of them are 
representatives of the agencies at work and ten are chosen at large. Accord- 
ingly we enjoy the counsel of persons, both colored and white, professional 
and non-professional, who have interest and experience in dealing with the 
problem. This Board of Directors is divided into ten committees whose work 
comprehends the scope of the Negro field. They are committees on 1. Relief 


SOCIAL AGENCIES AND RACE RELATIONS 87 


(for case and family welfare) and Institutional Care; 2. Housing and 
Health; 3. Economies (including thrift and industrial welfare); 4. Civics 
(implying citizenship and character building); 5. Education; 6. Recreation; 
7. Child Welfare; 8. Social Service and the Church (recognizing the dominant 
position of the Church in Negro life); 9. Publicity and Research; 10. Ad- 
ministration (Executive Committee). 

It is the function of these committees to study and understand each its 
own field of interest, to keep informed on what is going on in those fields, 
to prompt and encourage the same and to plan new work. The Executive 
Committee holds a final veto on all matters involving action and changes in 
policies. As a clearing house and codrdinating agency our Association has 
no arbitrary or administrative control over the agencies affiliated with it. 
What it accomplishes is done by education and persuasion. 

We have endeavored especially to reach the Negro leadership. We confer 
at times with the ministers as a group, and similarly, with doctors, repre- 
sentatives of women’s clubs, of lodges and with the social workers of the 
various agencies. Our colored workers employed by various agencies, public 
and private, number fifty-five and two years ago we organized them into an 
advisory group, thus giving them a larger interest in the work than that 
of mere employees. 

No single person or organization is a competent authority on all social 
problems and policies but if one knows how to consult the best advice 
of the community he will be able to act wisely on the important questions 
that come up from time to time. If I were asked what groups should be 
consulted, I should name the following general classes: 1. Social, meaning 
professional leaders in social work. 2. Civic, including the legal profession, 
political leadership, government and civil service employees, editors, and 
women’s clubs. 3. Commercial, the business men. 4. Industrial, the labor 
leaders. 5. Educational, the teaching profession and representatives of 
educational boards. 6. Medical doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, hospi- 
tal representatives. 7. Ecclesiastical, the ministry. 

In consulting these groups one frequently gets more than advice and 
moral support. It is possible to get active service. In our own city there 
are many women’s clubs and we desired to have them assist us actively in 
our work. We first approached them with a rather ambitious program but 
it was general and vague, and we had but little success. We analyzed our 
experience. We concluded that we had talked over the heads of the good 
women and that we needed an appeal more concrete and human to reach 
them. Among the homeless men that drifted into our midst that winter 
was a picturesque character from Missouri, aged 87, an ex-slave, full of 
superstitions, stories, quaint maxims and not a bad fellow at all—just home- 
less. Again we called the women together and told them the story; how we 
wanted to place him in the Old Men’s Home but lacked the initiation fee. 
Seventy-seven clubs contributed five dollars each and thereafter their presi- 
dents met and advised with us monthly on the work as a whole. Many of 
them were looking for something useful to do, and we were pleased to pass 
them on to the individual clubs, later recognizing services rendered and in- 
cidentally commending the club. In the matter of community organization 
we believe that the Negro is already highly organized and that better results 
can be obtained by recognizing his natural organizations and working with 
them than by continually creating new artificial organizations. 

What we have done during Health Week well illustrates the work which 
we have been able to do in a more general way in enlisting the interest 
of social agencies in Negro work. In 1918 there were five colored social 
agencies in the Community Chest and only a few white agencies interested 
in Negro work. At the conclusion of our survey we persuaded the Com- 
munity Chest to admit our Orphan Asylum for Colored Children, Crawford 
Old Men’s Home and Home for Aged Colored Women into the financial 
federation. This was done and these three agencies have made good our 


88 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


promise to the Community Chest, that their own pride and appreciation 
for the help received, as well as their increased financial abilit , would 
prompt and enable them to raise their general standard of service. Our 
Home for Aged Colored Women, in fact, sent a committee to request admis- 
sion. When we éxplained the impossibility of maintaining a first class 
institution in the building then occupied by them, they purchased, on their 
own initiative and responsibility, a suitable building which they now occupy. 
In other words, we brought them face to face with the challenge of higher 
standards and they accepted it. This in a nutshell, is what all our colored 
social agencies have done. The general effect of it has been to increase the. 
confidence of the Chest and the social agencies in our Association and the 
colored agencies. 

Among other things, the work of our three children’s institutions, then: 
seriously over-lapping, was cleared, each commissioned with a specific part 
of the child welfare work, and a program of child placing begun. The- 
Better Housing League already at work was induced to extend its program. 
into the Negro community and a zealous worker was recommended to them. 
At the present time they are employing three white visiting housekeepers. 
and four colored, the latter visiting about fifteen hundred colored homes 
last year. I believe that such agencies will not only want to help but will 
want the benefit of the best advice as to what they shall do; if they succeed 
by following such advice, confidence grows and they will be willing to do 
still more. It will be necessary to encourage them from time to time and 
a certain amount of friendly and constructive criticism will frequently prove- 
helpful. After seven years of such work today we can boast of twenty-eight 
social agencies working with us in Negro work, sixteen white and twelve 
colored. 

It has not always been easy to persuade social agencies to render service. 
In several instances they had to be shown, i.e., we had to make a demon- 
stration of the plausibility of such a venture. Shortly after the World War. 
we saw the need of industrial welfare work among women working in plants. 
and factories. We employed a worker who at the end of a year had estab- 
lished a program in fifteen different concerns employing over 1,000 women, 
enjoying the confidence of employer and employee. She had opened some of’ 
these places for colored women; in others she had the privilege of doing 
all the placing while she was making adjustments, stimulating morale, and 
giving good advice on both sides. We had been unable previously to sell the 
Y. W.C. A. this program on paper; it was not a difficult matter to persuade. 
them to take over a successful piece of work which included the interest 
of more than a dozen employers and more than 1,000 women. 

Some of the largest contributors to the Community Chest are thus inter- 
ested in our Negro work and so are a number of the leading social workers. 
and thinkers in the city. As organized today our Association is not a perfect 
piece of machinery but it has functioned with effect. If technique and skill. 
are needed, we have them among our social agencies. If the community 
opinion on any matter is needed we can consult it within about twenty-four 
to forty-eight hours and be sure that we have a conclusion behind which the. 
leaders of our community are willing to stand and work. 

Some one might plausibly ask: What has been the effect of all this work 
on race relations in Cincinnati? What would be the effect of such a clearing 
house or community council in any city? 

First of all, let me say that as a piece of work in Negro welfare we. 
cannot escape the conviction, that had no white people been concerned in it 
at all, race relations would have been improved. Can it be possible that 
an improvement in the social and moral well-being of one group will not call 
forth a better regard for it on the part of another group? I believe that 
one of the fundamental causes of violent manifestations of race prejudice. 
in America is the mere fact of racial contact under unfavorable circumstances . 
and the unpleasant experiences growing out of it. 





SOCIAL AGENCIES AND RACE RELATIONS 89 


In a community clearing house like ours, where the best people of both 
races of a community are brought together, there is an absence of unpleasant 
experiences. By virtue of their willingness to meet and confer, each recog- 
nizes the humanity and the worth of the other, so that here we have race 
relations on a different plane. Each sees the other giving honest consideration 
to some problem which is of concern to both. The natural result is confidence, 
mutual respect and fellow feeling. 

Eight years ago a Negro social worker coming into the field found himself 
seriously questioned. Many persons were unwilling to sit down and confer 
with him. In other words, Negro leadership was not sold to the white 
community. Today white people who want to start anything which touches 
in a vital way the Negro community will not only listen to the advice of 
Negro leadership but will go out and seek it. All cities, our own included, 
have experienced their share of incompetent leadership. I refer to the Negro 
who gains the favor of white people but makes no real contribution of 
intelligent service to race relations and the community as a whole. Per- 
sonality, of course, was ever and will ever be a real factor in human 
relations but with the standard of intelligence and efficiency generally re- 
quired of social workers, none can successfully rest his case upon personality 
alone. This change in the standard of Negro leadership is in itself a factor 
of far-reaching effect in race relations. 

In some instances our white agencies have forgotten race and thought only 
of service. In nearly all of them race has become a minor and service a 
major consideration. The Children’s Home insists that it is not a home for 
white but for all children. So its workers are finding boarding homes and 
doing adoptive work for both white and colored children. The Children’s 
Hospital is so busy doing service for all children that it was with difficulty 
that an investigator ascertained the number of colored children treated there. 
Community Service states in its report to us that its function is to conduct 
a recreational program for all Cincinnati. When personality and service 
demand larger consideration than race and color, race relations are on the 
mend. 


REPORT OF THE DISCUSSION COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AGENCIES AND 
RACE RELATIONS 


* 


Chairman: I will now call for the Report of the Discussion 
Committee through Dr. Woofter, its Chairman. 


1. Humanitarian appeal of the social agencies offers the strongest ap- 
proaches to interracial goodwill. 

2. The paramount emphasis of the social welfare agencies should be upon 
the community rather than upon the race. 

3. The necessary specialization on tasks of racial adjustment can be 
developed by a wise leadership. This leadership must be harmonious and 
must be selected with a view to the quality of service that it is able to 
render. 

4. Our Committee feels that the colored social workers should be given 
training which will enable them to maintain the existing standard of the 
profession and that the importance of training for social work as a profession 
be utilized by the young colored people. 

5. We are pleased to note an increasing tendency to pay the same basic 
salary to both white and colored workers who do the same type of work and 
urge that this practice become universal. 

6. The colored situation cannot be best served unless there is a representa- 
tion of the colored people on the governing boards of the welfare institutions, 
and unless there are colored members on the staff. 


90 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Dr, Jernagin: I want to commend that part of the report which 
says the humanitarian approach is the better in our work. I find that 
is true. To be truthful about it, until 1919 I was just a little the other 
way. I was in Paris during the Peace Conference when the Irish 
question was stirred up and I was asked by an Irishman what my 
organization was doing in America to help the Irish. Truth to tell, 
I had never thought of helping the Irish. I said, “Really, nothing ; 
the Irish I have come in contact with have not shown any disposition 
to help me, and I have not thought about it.” He replied, “That’s a 
question you ought to take up; you ought to help the Irish question 
then, and it would help you.” I found thirty different countries 
represented there with people having struggles; I was in contact with 
Jews and others who almost always put the same question, and it has 
broadened my vision. I came back to my organization and said, “We 
must begin to help with the troubles of other people, and it will give 
us a viewpoint on how to approach our own troubles.” J ews, Catholics 
and myself have been on close terms for three years. 

Chairman: We shall have to stop the discussion, and in closing 
it, I would like to express appreciation. I do not think that this 
Chairman has ever presided over a meeting where the speakers said 
so much in so short a time and codperated so well in keeping the 
discussion within the time limit. 

Dr, Haynes: I did not present Miss Van Kleeck, the Chairman, 
at the beginning of this session, and think it is well to do so at the 
close. She is the Director of the Department of Industrial Studies, 
Russell Sage Foundation. During the War she was director of the 
Women in Industry Service, now The Women’s Bureau, of the U. S. 
Department of Labor. She has done remarkable work in stimulating 
study of women in industry and in bringing about a new point of 
view in the relations between employer and employee. It has been 
a great help and privilege to have her here. 

(Motion was made and carried that a rising vote of thanks be 
given Miss Van Kleeck for her courteous efficiency in presiding. 
Whereupon with a closing prayer the session adjourned at 5:30 
P. M.) 


SUMMARY OF THE DISCUSSION ON 
V. SOCIAL AGENCIES AND RACE RELATIONS * 


1. Social agencies need more and more to take the community viewpoint 
and emphasize race less and less. Their boards and staffs should be 
interracial where two races reside. 

2. Negro social workers are employed on staffs of general social agencies 
in some communities, thus making them interracial. 


* Prepared by Dr. George Edmund Haynes. 


SOCIAL AGENCIES AND RACE RELATIONS 91 


. The demand for Negro social workers is growing in the South. A School 


of Social Work for Negroes is being developed at Atlanta, Ga. Increas- 
ing numbers of Negro students are seeking training in northern schools. 


. Negro social workers should be expected to conform to the same 


standards as the white and when they do should receive equal pay. 
Rising standards of social work must be applied without regards to 
race. 


. Community interracial councils or committees should represent many 


interests and varied viewpoints of the community. They should study 
their problems and plan programs. 


. In many instances white agencies have forgotten race and thought 


mainly of service. 


. As the Negro helps other struggling groups he will find increasing 


sympathy. 


CHAPTER VI 
THE CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS * 


Chairman: We will stand and sing one verse of America. (The 
conference as a whole stood while singing.) The Rey. Dr. Oxley 
will lead us in prayer. 

Dr. H. N. Oxley (Cincinnati, Ohio): Oh, Eternal God, the Father 
of our country and humanity, we thank Thee for this blessed privilege 
and opportunity of meeting together in mutual conference for the 
exchange of ideas. We know that without recognizing Thee as the 
Father of us all, there can be no solution of any problem that will be 
just and far-reaching in its consequences, and so we come to Thee in 
the full recognition of Thy eternal sovereignty over the affairs of 
men. 

Give us humble hearts that we may approach truth in the spirit 
of those who would learn. Give us willing minds that, after dis- 
covering that truth, we may have the strength of Thee to go forward 
in the path which leads to justice and peace and good-will. Strengthen 
those who are standing for right and justice everywhere. Give us 
united forces for the uplift of our common humanity. Help us more 
and more to study these various problems with an unbiased mind. 

Bless the deliberations of this conference and its officers. Help 
those in their committees to find truth. Give us clearness of vision 
so that out of this great conference may come a new approximation 
of the value of common human life. Enable us to bring about in 
our commonwealth a united citizenship among all peoples. And 
Thine shall be the glory and the peace now and forever more. Amen. 

Chairman: One of the delightful things about being chairman 
of this conference is that no responsibility devolves upon the chairman 
except to introduce those who are doing the work. Dr. Townsend, 
whose name appears on the program, is not able to be with us, but 
Mr. Judson J. McKim, the General Secretary of the Metropolitan 
Y. M. C. A. in Cincinnati, is to take Dr. Townsend’s place as chair- 
man of the Discussion Committee, and I count it a privilege to present 
to you this evening Mr. McKim, who will lead the open forum discus- 
sion on The Church and Race Relations. 

Mr. McKim (Cincinnati, Ohio): Now, it has impressed me, as I 


* Thursday, March 26, 7:10 p.m. W. T. Paterson, D.D., Moderator-elect, Pres- 
bytery of Cincinnati, presiding. 
92 


: 


THE CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS 93 


have looked over this program that the representatives of the Federal 
Council of Churches have practiced a rather unnecessary bit of self- 
abnegation. But I rather have the feeling that after all is said and 
done we are now beginning to step into the very heart of this thing 
about which we have been talking for a day and a little over. 


RELIGION AT HEART OF RACE PROBLEMS 


I believe it is the heart of the thing because in a statement recently 
made by an executive of the Community Chest of one of our metro- 
politan cities it was indicated that seventy-five per cent of the social 
agencies that were in the chest had their origin either directly or 
indirectly in the Christian church. And we use that as a compre- 
hensive term. I rather feel that those who are finding their life work, 
who give expression to their life desires in social service, discover 
they are indebted in a measure perhaps which they do not realize 
-to the ministrations of the church. 

Professor Ellwood, that talented sociologist of the University of 
Missouri, said in his book, which no doubt some of you have read, 
Reconstruction of Religion, that history fails to endure after it has 
ceased to be guided strongly by the hand of religion. Now, if this 
thing about which we are talking deals with the progress of civiliza- 
tion, then this dynamic thing concerning which we are now to speak 
becomes in reality the very heart of the thing, for it deals with the 
questions of the attitude of heart and mind. 

I am rather inclined to believe that we all would agree with the 
fact, as we think it over soberly, that this is something more than a 
problem between the white man and the black man. Some twenty- 
five years ago I happened to be in the anthracite coal fields of Penn- 
sylvania, and I discovered there the attitude of mind on the part 
of the Welsh- and English-speaking miner towards the Slav, who 
was coming into that territory at that time, injecting his personality 
and life into the mining work, which was identical with the things 
which I have discovered later in certain communities in certain rela- 
tionship between the white and the black. 

And I rather think there is a need for all of us to take this further 
fact into consideration: That in certain sections of this country we 
are now in danger of adopting a fundamental and certain materialistic 
philosophy which tells us that the only thing that man needs to make 
him good and great and strong and beautiful is environment. We 
recognize that environment has its place. That it is necessary for 
people to be contented; that it is necessary for them to have health 
in order that they may enjoy life. We also recognize the fact that in 


94 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


order that this life may get, its. fullest there needs to be placed into 
that life this dynamic which we speak of as religion. 

And as we come to this question of The Church and Race Rela- 
tions, may I refer to one idea that was expressed this afternoon, as 
far as it relates to Christian associations, both to Christian associa- 
tions or expressions of church life? They do not enjoy being classified 
with groups which are not essentially religious. Their lives are inte- 
grated with the church group. They fall if it falls. They rely upon 
its strength. The Christian associations do not include all of the 
church, but the church includes all of the Christian associations. So, 
as we come to speak tonight of this question of relationship of the 
church and the race problem, we trust that you will bear this in mind 
and think of us also as a part of this particular field. 

In opening our discussion on the question of the relations of 
church to the race problem, the Committee felt that they would like 
to limit their discussions to one or two problems. They had the 


thought that the thing that would be wholesome for us for a moment: 


or two would be to limit the field entirely to the concrete, the field 
which we have been interested in, that we should measure our thoughts 
and think for a moment along the lines of idealism. 


Those who were in attendance at the Foreign Missions Convention . 


of the United States and Canada held at Washington, D. C., last 
month came back telling us that there was one name which was 
more on the lips of those who were present at that great conference 
than any other name with the one exception of the name of the 
Master himself, and that was the name of Gandhi, that man who, 
Roland, his biographer, has said, has done more to interpret the spirit 
of God to man than any other man for nearly two thousand years. 
Your Committee was rather anxious to discover what it is that Gandhi 
has which makes his interpretation of life so interesting, so complete, 
so unusual. This great race problem which was considered at the 
Washington Convention in a way becomes the great struggle point, 
the great battle point of the Christian forces throughout the world, 
for we were very frankly told at the Washington Conference that 
unless America could discover the means or point the way upon 
which this thing could be worked out, she need have little hope of 
interesting the nations of the Orient in adopting those things which 
she herself was discarding or, at least, not putting into practice. 


WHAT IS THE CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE TOWARD RACE PROBLEMS ? 


The first question which we want to leave with you for discussion 
is: What do you consider should be the Christian attitude of mind 
toward the problem of race relationships ? 


ee ee 


THE CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS SaG 


S. Joe Brown (Des Moines, Iowa): Out at Des Moines about 
a month ago we put on a little experiment that possibly most of 
you heard about, that we called Religious Life Emphasis Week, in 
which we attempted to put before the nominal Christian people of 
our city the fact that on this question they must either accept the 
doctrine of brotherhood of man or reject the doctrine of the Father- 
hood of God. 

Mr. Eleazer: I think I would include at least five elements in 
my definition; I would like to put it this way: That the Christian 
take the attitude of brotherliness and neighborliness toward the man 
of any other group, which involves first, the realization. that he is 
my neighbor who most needs me, as well as he is most likely to need 
me. That would apply to men and women in any group. It would 
involve the relationship of not judging groups as we do. Jesus told 
us that nobody should judge. We should judge in terms of the 
best in that group, in terms of those who are on the highest level. 

And then the neighborly attitude; that is, of the man having 
consciously in his mind an adequate perspective. If he keeps in mind 
the different groups and has perspective, I think the man who truly 
has that neighborly attitude toward other groups will insist upon 
having in his life friendships which carry him across these different 
racial lines. ; 

Mr. : I find myself at a loss to answer a question like 
this, the definition of what should be or is the Christian attitude. I 
think ninety-nine out of a hundred people would say, “Of course 
we are going to be brothers.” But the question is this, having decided 
that is the definition of brotherhood, what shall be the attitude? I 
have this suggestion, Shall we be Negroes first then Christians, or 
shall we be Christians first and then Negroes? The Christian attitude 
is that we should be Christians first. To put the question the other 
way, Shall we be Nordics and Anglo-Saxons first and then Christians, 
or Christians first and then Nordics and Anglo-Saxons? 

Rev. W. C. Orton (Louisville, Ky.): The Christian attitude of 
mind should be one of charitableness towards the vices and virtues of 
all others. 

Mr. McKim: That is good. Does anybody want to improve on 
that ? 

Mrs. Gordon: Shall we say with Paul, “I am debtor to both the 
wise and the unwise ?” 

Dr. Oxley: The attitude of the Christian to race relationship 
should be the attitude of a Christ mind. What would Christ do? I 
think Christ would say and that we are all agreed, “They are neither 
bond nor free.” 





96 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


C. H. James (Charleston, W. Va.): The attitude of the Christian 
mind, it seems to me, is that we should do justice—“Do unto others 
as you would have them do unto you.” 


HOW TO PUT CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES IN OPERATION 


Mr. McKim: The next question is, How are we going to put these 
principles in operation? We have got our attitude defined. Tell us 
how we are going to get these principles into operation as far as the 
churches are concerned. 

Mr. Orton (Louisville, Ky.) : By practicing what we preach. If wé 
should practice in the southland and in the northland the straight 
teachings of the gospel, there would be a solution of all the vexing 
questions that excite us. 

When we shall have learned more of each other it will be easy 
for us to be charitable toward each other. I used to criticize the white 
man’s religion and say he didn’t have any, but when I studied history 
of the times through which he has come and his training for many 
years, | am more charitable toward him than I used to be. 

Dr. B. F. McWilliams (Toledo, Ohio): Sometimes in digging a 
tunnel it is wise to begin at both ends and work toward the center. 
I think this attitude of race relations can be arrived at if we begin 
first with the individual and simultaneously with the machinery of 
the churches, after that the denomination and denominational ma- 
chinery. We must receive and meet the individual, and because he 
does not have control of his own machinery sometimes we must begin 
with those who do. 

Mr. McKim: May I suggest that from now on we would like 
concrete suggestions. We started out with idealism. Let us leave 
that for the time being and come now directly to some concrete sug- 
gestions as to how we can put these principles into operation. 

Dr. Haynes: As the matter has struck me, it has started my 
mind along this line of thinking; it seems to me that more and 
more the church, which is the institution to propagate religion, must 
come to realize that the man who goes out into business is going 
to be practicing religion or the other thing as much as any one else. 
Perhaps I could make it clearer if I give an illustration from the 
field of foreign missions. I happened to be on the committee to make 
plans for the last student volunteer convention. We spent consider- 
able time discussing whether or not we should have presented to that 
convention the fact that those who went to foreign lands represent- 
ing the political arms of our Government or representing commer- 
cial houses were about as potential for the gospel as regular mis- 





THE CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS 97 


sionaries; if we could get men with ideals of Christ who would go 
in those capacities, we would send men about as potential for carrying 
the gospel to lands which did not have it, as men sent out by the 
missionary societies. The great difficulty today is representatives 
of government and representatives of business have such relations and 
dealings with the natives of those lands so different from the relations 
and dealings of the missionaries. 

It seems to me that is similar to the situation we are in where 
the two races meet in America. We come daily in contact either with 
the men and the women represented by the white people who are in 
this meeting or with those who are prejudiced. White people come 
in contact with those types of Negroes such as we are here, but there 
are all the other types. There are all the types of white men clear 
on down to those who organize and mob, those who go out at night 
and mob and kill other people. Three-fourths of the contact is not 
between the good Christian-minded men and women of the two races. 
It is between the other types. It seems to me the only concrete, 
definite way by means of which the church—and if I understand this 
program, that is the reason for bringing us all here, under a com- 
mission of the church—that the church must more and more bring 
down into industry and down into health agencies, down into the 
rank and file of men, this idealism for which the church stands and 
make it function among all types of people and of activities. 

Mr. James: JI have in mind the circulation that will spread such 
propaganda as you are putting forth here. As Dr. Haynes has said, 
you are not getting in touch with ninety-five per cent of the people 
who need this, and you are not getting in touch with their class. 
Whatever we do here, we should have some medium of circulation to 
impress the public as to how they should do justice, do justice unto 
others, and let the public he impressed by that, and create public 
sentiment to do the same thing. It is useless for a few people to 
come in here and have the idea, and let that be all. The world 
does not do any good without having the public impressed with the 
idea of justice—“Do unto others justice,” and let that go out and 
spread as we do business, and people will begin to read and learn 
after a while what this organization means, and it will begin to have 
a psychological effect on them. 

Chairman: Let’s see if we can keep to our subject. The question 
is, How can we help the church? How can the church become con- 
cretely interested in this problem? 

Dr. Cox: May I make just a few suggestions from the inside 
of one church? JI called my Sunday School Board together and kept 
them for about an hour in the evenings recently discussing this 


98 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


problem, and the relation of the Sunday School teachers to the race 
problem, and I have laid out as heavily as I can that part of their 
business as Christian teachers is to create this Christian attitude. 
Our Women’s Home Missionary Society, as all the rest of them did in 
most of the churches, studied this relation last year. I suggested 
that they study not only out of a book, but that they get in touch 
with some of the best women of the colored people of our city, which 
they did, much to their amusement and delight and pleasure ever 
since then. The other thing I tried to do was to bring into my 
pulpit as often as I dared the best representatives of the race—Dr. 
Haynes has been there—and in that sense that they may see the 
individual. 

Mrs. I would like, as a member of this Committee, to 
bring up two points: First, the church is not measuring up to the 
great majority of the great questions, it is dodging the issue. Now, 
we know the Christian church will never have world power by 
going on this policy of dodging the great issues. If we love the 
church, we will have to drill into the Christian church the matter 
of facing the great issues that come before the nation as the prophets 
of old. They preached upon the issues of the day, and we have the 
same privilege. Second, we must create in our audiences a scientific 
attitude; we must train our people; we must train them to be willing 
to accept facts with a dispassionate point of view, regardless of 
whether those facts contribute to our self-respect or self-interest or not. 
Until we have created the best thought in dealing with the great 
interracial problems we will never get anywhere; we will never get 
any place. 

Bishop Walls: The machinery of the denominations, as such de- 
nominations, all have some sort of official board organization by 
which they circulate propaganda, or by which they get over to the 
people anything that they propose, and that is regarded essential. And 
this seems not even to be a fifth wheel matter now in the church 
organization. We are satisfied with beautiful speeches and idealistic 
sermons, and probably not so much of that, but when it comes to the 
regular constitutional work, when it comes to meeting the congre- 
gations and getting over to them from the official board headquarters 
all this matter, there is a great dearth perhaps in most cases, and no 
effort being made at all. 

We had an illustration of how this may be done in a concrete 
way in the operation and the activity of the Woman’s Council M. E. 
Church, South. The women of that denomination, on the question 
of lynching, were the first great voice from the southern women to 











THE CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS 99 


speak out in the way that was due; they influenced very largely the 
southern sentiment. 

Local church federation codperation is very necessary. At this 
time, since it is not being given to us from above, it is perhaps the 
only point of contact we have, and that is greatly neglected in the 
South. There are very few communities in the South where church 
organizations have any point of contact at all. It is very important, 
as was suggested in the committee meeting this afternoon, if that can 
be done, it should have the effect of forcing from below what ought 
to be begun from above. 

Bishop Clement: It seems to me, in the final analysis, the prac- 
tical thing to do is for the individual Christian, Negro or Anglo- 
Saxon, or what not, in his very large dealings with his fellow man 
of one race or the other, or both races, to exemplify the mind of 
Christ. If the laity, to say nothing of the pulpit, would live out the 
Christ mind and the Christ ideal, we would soon function. I believe 
that the church would go a long way if it could get the evangelistic 
field and the ministry along that line to take this question up. In 
these great evangelistic meetings, which are held in different sections 
of our country, it seems the evangelists themselves dodge the issue 
of preaching the full gospel. If the church, along that particular 
line, could get the evangelists, as they go out over this country, to 
preach the full gospel and not be afraid when they reach that section 
where some of the sins are glaring, and simply put it up to them 
through the gospel as to what the Lord would have us do in these 
matters, it would go a long way. 

Chairman: It may not be known to delegates from outside the 
city of Cincinnati, that there is contiguous to the city of Cincinnati 
another city. Just about five miles from Fountain Square there is 
the city of Norwood of some thirty thousand, and the Globe-Wernicke 
bookcases which you are using in your homes or your studies came 
out of Norwood. I need not say all the playing cards you use, 
because you are not using them, but where you might find them 
used, came out of Norwood. There is one other article that came 
out of Norwood that I am very proud and very happy to present 
to you this evening, one of our former pastors of the Norwood 
Christian Church, who is now Secretary of the Board of Temperance 
and Social Welfare, Church of Christ (Disciples) of Indianapolis, 
Dr. Alva W. Taylor, who is to speak to us at this time on this topic. 
Dr. Taylor then spoke in part as follows: 


Mr. Chairman and Friends: The church suffers the limitations of those 
mortals who make up its membership and control its destiny. The Kingdom 
of Heaven is the divine thing; the light of its truth shines through mortal 


100 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


opaqueness in the life of the church. We are only broken lights. Even 
our ideals reflect the angular direction of our limited and biased minds; 
and narrow minds may be fired with a holy zeal. Swift said: “We have 
just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love 
one another.” When science comes to the rescue of narrow judgments with 
such long range hypotheses as that of the pro-Nordie school, or such half- 
baked dogmas as those of certain apostles of the psychological test, we can 
at least comprehend when little men turn the white cross of love into the 
fiery cross of hate. . 

If the church is a divine thing, then which church is it that is divine? 
Is divinity sectarian? Is God divided or multiplied? Who made the creeds 
that divide us? Who manages the ecclesiastical machinery that competes 
in missionary work? Who determines the terms of membership? Christ 
takes us all into His fellowship, but we will not fellowship one another. 
The divisions in a church whose gospel is one of unity and brotherhood 
is ample proof of its human limitations. We are creatures of small loyalties, 
of traditions, of social inertia. The divine image is in common clay, working 
out diviner forms, but let us beware of claiming divinity for our human 
attempts to realize on divine things. 

We may liken the church to a school. In its membership are all grades 
from kindergarten (“babes in Christ”) to post-graduates (apostles and 
prophets). From the lofty viewpoint of Christ’s teachings on social issues, 
a no larger proportion get beyond the grades in this school than in those of 
our public school system. One of the speakers reminded us tonight of what 
the Old Testament prophets said; she might have reminded us also of what 
the Old Testament church did to them. There are prophets aplenty in our 
time. An occasion like this is a sort of foregathering of them. They are 
those who see wrongs done humanity by out-worn systems and vicious ways 
and take counsel of courage in attempting their tasks. They are not always 
popular and the official mortality among them is often quite large, but they 
make the future. We stone them with verbal stones to be sure, and that 
is some improvement over Isaiah’s day, but we are not yet convinced that 
freedom to seek and to speak the truth, as God gives one to see it, is the 
safest road toward truth finding. 

Moral dynamics faces a problem not unlike that faced by mechanical 
engineers. They are unable as yet to utilize more than a fraction of the 
power in a lump of coal or a boiler of water. There is a vast moral 
dynamic in our ideals and in the principles laid down by Jesus, but we are 
unable as yet to turn more than a fraction of it into moral power. The very 
democracy of the church makes effective social engineering difficult. Effective 
engineering requires executive authority as well as expert knowledge. If 
all leadership were sacrificial, as well as expert, we could entrust our programs 
to it. But even spiritual service is conveyed through mortal instruments, 
and the best of leaders disagree. We might invite Dr. Will Alexander to 
our city and arrange for a meeting of all races in one of our churches. The 
leaders might even do better than they did once there, and take all the 
Sunday school workers into a luncheon meeting to discuss the work of all the 
Sunday schools. Dr. Alexander would inspire the workers gathered there 
to high things, but after it was over our rank and file church democracy 
would probably assert its prejudices and forbid another such interracial 
luncheon and conference. We could not afford to abandon church democracy 
in order to overcome those limitations in idealistic service. We shall simply 
have to keep up our educational process and try to graduate more church 
members out of the grades. 

It is a practical world that we dea] with, even in the church, idealists 
though we are. The so-called “practical man” is rather proud of character- 
istics that we find a rather tough fabric for weaving into our idealistic 
patterns. But the history of moral progress is a story of the progressive 
assimilation of the ideal into the practical. This is illustrated by those who 


es 





THE CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS 101 


held slaves during the past generation. My grandfather was one of them. 
He locked the cabin doors at night for he lived near the Ohio River, not 
far from the village where the first abolitionist journal was published. He 
looked upon the “underground railway” with about as much favor as Judge 
Gary looks upon labor unions. He was a strong, patriotic, law-abiding 
citizen when it came fo demanding the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave 
Law. He was a just and kindly man in dealing with individuals, but his 
Bible justified the institution of slavery. He also believed in predestination 
with a Scotch theological zeal, and he made as good corn whiskey as 
Kentucky boasted. It was not moonshine, for he could make it in the 
full light of the sun and with the approval of his wife, his pastor and the 
law of his day. To him an abolitionist was a fanatic and a prohibitionist 
an idealist. He had scripture to quote against both of them, and he was a 
good man. But idealism won, and so far as I know them every voting 
descendant of his is both a prohibitionist and a fundamental, little “d” 
democrat; most of them voted for La Follette. He was a pioneer, always 
following the blazed trail to the west, but the social gospel had no part 
in the religion of his day. When you put clean personal character and 
kindly personal tempers over into the wider and more impersonal relation- 
ships, you get an application of the social gospel. It is a widening of the 
moral horizon that is needed. 

We are all acquainted with Benjamin Kidd’s famous thesis that what 
is taught the youth of today will govern the social order tomorrow. He laid 
down another thesis that is quite as gratifying to the idealist and social 
reformer. It was that by keeping up the steady moral pressure of idealism, 
old customs and cruel systems are disintegrated and make way for the new, 
though the times and seasons of change are not easily seen and the battle 
against them runs strong. That is a comforting and encouraging thesis for 
the idealist and social reformer; he may be defeated and forgotten, but his 
ideals win. God is not on the side of the strongest battalions, but of truth 
and righteousness; only truth and righteousness must be born of sacrifice 
and self-forgetfulness. 

The winning faith outruns the practical man’s statistics of success. It 
requires a certain glorious abandon of the over-practical. It is rather careless 
of the little things, yet rejoices in them when they become straws in the 
wind to show progress. We can accept defeat in a thousand immediate 
undertakings, but keep up the steady moral pressure of idealism and win. 
Through sermons, books, editorials and all manner of public appeal we can 
direct the disintegrating force of truth and idealism against the citadels 
of ignorance, half-truths, institutionalism and social inertia, and like Jericho’s 
walls they will come down. It may seem like casting bread upon the waters 
to a practical age but as sure as there is a God in Heaven it will return 
to modify and reform ancient ways. The customs and institutions and social 
classes that will not yield will atrophy and die. Change is not necessarily 
moral, but social progress is, and its dynamic force is idealism. 

The microcosm of Christ’s world-encompassing ideals of brotherhood is 
the beloved community. Right there is the acid test of Christian race 
relationships. Many churches support African missions generously, but 
do little or nothing in their own communities to ameliorate the harshness 
and injustice found along the color line. The gospel of sweetness and light 
radiates from their pulpits, but it does not search down into the sour and 
acrid race relationships of their community. God’s justice to the wayward 
soul is preached, but little is said about justice to the weak and oppressed. 
A most inexcusable lynching took place in a mid-western city. The law 
was strict, the judge was just and there was no doubt of the verdict, but 
the guilty wretch was swung into eternity by lawless hands. It was as 
stark lawlessness as a hold-up or a bank robbery and the name of that town 
was in the headlines as a lawless community for days; but with two excep- 
tions not a pulpit in that city called it to account before the moral law. 


102 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


The question of men of different color eating together is of minor con- 
sequence, but the question of equality in chances to eat is of major consequence. 
No one on either side of the color line is asking for racial intermingling. 
When the white man gets frantic about that it is a good thing to ask him 
who has been the aggressor in whatever racial crossing has taken place. 
But self-respecting, justice-loving men on both sides are asking for equality 
in opportunity, and of all institutions they have most right to ask the 
church to advocate that. Equality of opportunity is a fundamental of 
democracy, of Americanism, and, above all, of the Christian gospel. There 
is not a community where white and black live side by side that does not 
challenge its churches with this problem, and the church that ignores it 
simply fails to preach either the justice of God or the gospel of Christ’s 
brotherhood. 

The color line is here, whether right or wrong, and it is so grounded 
in prepossession and prejudice that its abolition in our day is well-nigh 
hopeless. It is laid horizontally now, with the white man on top and the 
black man beneath it. Every fundamental we live by, both as Americans 
and Christians, demands that it be lifted from a horizontal to a vertical 
position. Tilting up the color line is a challenge to the best effort of the 
pulpit and of men of good-will in the pew. If there must be differentiation 
in community, school, hospital and church, let there be equal service. If 
states will compel different railway coaches and station arrangements, let 
them be of equal accommodation. When skill qualifies for craftsmanship, 
let pay be equal and opportunity at the job as well. When justice is done, 
let it be equal justice without reference to color. Thus only can we live 
in peace. Either the colored man must be given equal opportunity and justice 
or you must stop his education, for culture and inequity do not dwell together 
in peace. 

‘We have a right to demand of our church leadership that it take counsel 
of its courage rather than of prudence and fear. The rank and file await 
our instruction, but they are children led by false guides if we lead not 
courageously. x 


REPORT OF THE DISCUSSION COMMITTER 


At the conclusion of Dr. Taylor’s address the Discussion Com- 
mittee reported through Mr. McKim, its Chairman. 

Mr. McKim: Your Committee desires to present three resolutiong 
for your consideration. The first resolution is this: 

That we recommend that wherever possible interchange of pulpits be 
arranged between clergymen of different races, and that this resolution be 
called to the attention of the general boards of the church, to the ministerial 


associations and to the local churches represented by members in this 
conference. 


It was adopted by vote. 
Mr. McKim: We present this further resolution: 


That we recommend the organization and regular meetings of religious 
leaders in local communities for the study of race problems. 


What do you wish to do with this resolution? 

A Voice: May I ask that you leave out the word “organization,” 
and say “meeting” ? 

Mr. McKim: We will accept that amendment. 





THE CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS 103 


The resolution was amended and adopted as follows: 


= 


That we recommend the regular meetings of religious leaders in local 
communities for the study of race problems. 


Mr. McKim: Our next resolution is: 


We recommend that the attention of boards charged with educational, 
evangelistic and social activities, and those charged with the general admin- 
istration of church bodies be called to the crucial importance of American 
race relations problems, not only to our American life, but to the religious 
life of the world. 


The resolution was adopted unanimously. 
The Chairman: We will now have the benediction; this session 
will adjourn and the conference will continue its work upstairs. 


SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION ON 
VI. THE CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS * 


1. Religion is at the heart of race problems because we need the dynamic 
which Christianity gives to deal with such problems. 

2. What should be the Christian attitude of mind toward race relation- 
ships? Several answers were given such as: Acceptance of brotherhood 
of man or rejection of Fatherhood of God; realization that he is my 
neighbor who needs me, with life friendships across group and race 
lines; the Christian attitude puts Christ before race loyalty; “What 
would Christ do?” 

3. In answer to the question, How can we put these principles into action, 
such statements as the following were made: “By practicing what we 
preach”; beginning first with the individual, then the church, then the 
denomination, etc.; send Christians to other lands as representatives of 
governments and of business as zealous to live the Christ ideals as are 
the missionaries; spread the idea as we do our business with people of 
other races; get Sunday School teachers to create Christian attitudes in 
those they teach; live out the Christ ideal. 


* Prepared by Dr. George Edmund Haynes. 


CHAPTER VII 
INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS * 


Opening prayer by Dr. R. W. McGranahan, Secretary of the Pub- 
licity Board of the United Presbyterian Church. 

Dr. Haynes: The Chairman of the Discussion Committee is 
Miss Mary Van Kleeck. The Committee in planning this program 
feels that this morning we come more nearly to the ideal arrange- 
ment for one of these topics. You have been conscious of the fact 
that we did not have time enough for these topics each day. We 
have left the whole morning today to the question of industry. And 
we are very fortunate in the Committee we have to guide us in this 
discussion. Miss Van Kleeck is probably one of the best informed 
persons on the problem of industry today. Mr. John P. Frey, of 
Cincinnati, is the editor of one of the leading labor journals of 
the United States, and Mr. Barr is the managing vice-pres. of the 
American Cast Iron Pipe Co., one of the largest manufacturing 
plants in Birmingham, Alabama. Mrs. Norton, secretary of the West 
End Branch Y.W.C. A. of Cincinnati, who has supervised their 
industrial work in placing women in this city, and Mr. Cyrus T. 
Greene who is one of the personnel directors of the Westinghouse 
Electric Co. of Pittsburg, and Mr. Forrester B. Washington, who is 
to make the address, was an Urban League secretary in Detroit 
during the heaviest migration about six years ago; he was with me 
in the United States Department of Labor as Supervisor of Negro 
Economics in Illinois during the War and was in the Chicago dis- 
trict all the weeks preceding the riot. He is now Executive Secretary 
of the Armstrong Association. I now introduce the Chairman of the 
Discussion Committee—Miss Van Kleeck. 


THE PLAN FOR THE SESSION 


Miss Van Kleeck: I wish, first of all, to tell you the plan for this 
session, which is a little different from previous sessions. I should 
like to make a brief statement for the Committee, and then we shall 
have half an hour of general discussion from the floor. Our idea 
is that we are not prepared to say just what problems you would 


* Friday, March 27, 1925, 9:15 A. M.. Bishop C. H. Phillips, presiding. 
104 








INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 105 


like to bring out from your different communities, and if we can 
leave the discussion open instead of announcing topics perhaps we 
can bring out before the group the important questions relating 
to industrial conditions and race relations in your own communities. 

At the end of the half hour we shall hear from Mrs. Elliott and 
Mr. Greene and then go on for a second half hour with general dis- 
cussion. Then the Committee will withdraw as usual. Mr. Wash- 
ington will make his address while the Committee will try to formulate 
for you what seem to be the main points towards which the con- 
ference should direct its attention. Then we wish to hear from Mr. 
Barr, who is vice-president of the American Cast Iron Pipe Co. 
of Birmingham, Ala. There is a great deal of appropriateness in that 
because this is the plant with which Mr. John J. Eagan, who was 
the first chairman of this Race Relations Commission of the Federal 
Council of Churches, was connected. In his will he left the plant 
to the employees. It represents one interesting and outstanding 
example of an effort to establish an ideal of brotherhood in an 
industrial plant. I am sure you will feel that it is very worth while 
to hear what has been done in one plant. Then the remainder of 
the time before adjournment, which will be about a half hour, will be 
given to questions and discussion. 


ACCEPTED IDEAS 


Let me first of all outline the points which the Committee con- 
sider important in opening discussion: At the outset we can agree 
that certain fundamental ideas are accepted, so that we shall not 
need to spend time in convincing each other of their truth. The 
first of these ideas was expressed several times yesterday: When we 
discuss housing or health or any other aspect of community life as 
affecting colored people we come back in the last analysis to their 
economic status; that is to say, many of these questions would cease 
to be problems if colored people all had adequate wages and adequate 
opportunity. As George Bernard Shaw said, “The trouble with the 
poor is their poverty,” and that is true of the poor of every race. It 
is true, to be sure, that certain aspects of these questions are not 
related to wages; that, for instance, something more than universally 
high wages is necessary to satisfactory housing in a community. 

Nevertheless, in a fundamental sense, the economic status of a 
people must always be reckoned with in any effective effort to im- 
prove social or living conditions. 

The second idea which we are all prepared to accept is that every 
human being should have an opportunity in the world’s work to do the 


106 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


work for which he or she has capacity. That includes a great deal: 
freedom to choose one’s work ; opportunity to be trained for it; and a 
fair chance for promotion. For my part, I do not believe that history 
records any instance of more rapid progress than has been made by 
the colored race in this nation of ours since the Civil War, in the 
achievements of its members in various lines of work, in the pro- 
fessions, in the arts, in industry. It seems to me wholly extraor- 
dinary that such a record should have been made despite the handi- 
caps of limited opportunities. It has demonstrated how great an 
asset this country of ours has in the capacity of the colored people 
to contribute to its work; and by “work” I mean all the professions 
and arts as well as industry. I think we need not spend any time 
in this conference, discussing the desirability of choice of occupation, 
of a chance to express, and to develop one’s abilities. The question 
for us to discuss here is how to bring it to pass. 

The third point of agreement is that the colored worker cannot. 
get his opportunity in industry in America today without regard 
for the progress of labor generally. What is called the “labor move- 
ment” is seeking to establish a higher standard of living for all 
workers. It would be shortsighted for any one race to seek to over- 
come its own handicaps at the expense of that movement as a whole. 
And that brings up two questions: What is the labor movement. 
going to do about giving the colored workers larger opportunity ? 
And what shall be the position of the leaders of the colored people 
with reference to the standards of work and wages for which the la- 
bor movement has striven in different industries? Are we to be glad 
of the opening up of new opportunities for colored workers if they 
have come through the breaking of a strike? Will not that temporary 
gain of opening a new occupation be more than offset by the loss to. 
labor generally in which the colored workers inevitably share? 

The Committee believes that the Conference accepts these funda- 
mental ideas and that we are here to consider how to make progress 
toward their realization. These are the questions on which we- 
should like information from your various communities: 


FACTS DESIRED 


First: We would like to know, in general, the proportions of’ 
white and colored workers in the wage-earning population of your: 
community. In relation to that fact, how is migration affecting race 
relations in industry in your city? 

Second: What are the proportions of white and colored workers. 
in your principal occupations? Are the proportions changing ?* 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 107 


During the World War new occupations were opened to colored 
workers. Have the colored workers held their own in those occu- 
pations? If not, why? What is the effect on opportunities open to 
colored workers of restrictions on immigration from abroad? In 
other words, this series of questions is designed to bring out in- 
formation regarding changes in the types of industrial work done 
by colored workers in your communities, and, closely allied to that, 
any instances of new occupations, new industries or plants opened 
to colored workers; and the circumstances whereby they were opened. 
In plants having personnel departments, what plans are in effect 
regarding the employment, training, and promotion of colored 
workers ? 

What is the relation of the public schools to employment? What 
are the schools doing to guide colored children in the choice of an 
occupation, and to train them, and what is the result? After colored 
children are trained is it difficult to get opportunities for them in 
industry? What are the obstacles? 

What are the most difficult problems in race relations in industry, 
concretely illustrated in your community, and can you give instances 
of success in meeting them? Let us put the emphasis upon successful 
experience. JI believe that we can be optimistic about the whole 
trend of labor relations in America despite temporary setbacks, and 
I believe that we can, also, be optimistic about race relations in in- 
dustry. I do not mean to be complacent or to ignore difficulties, but 
let us concentrate our attention upon the methods of accomplishing 
results as they have been illustrated in actual practice. 

What part do colored workers in your communities take in labor 
organizations; what part are they permitted to take? What is the 
attitude of the unions toward them? What is the attitude of the 
white workers within a plant toward the colored workers and the 
attitude of the colored workers toward the white? We would welcome 
concrete illustrations of all of these questions. 

To sum up the questions: First, we want the facts—statements 
of what is actually happening in your communities. Second, we 
would like a clear formulation of the difficult problems. And, third, 
we would like to have you describe any experience, either of success 
or of failure, in dealing with those problems. 

The Charman: According to the outline set out in the program, 
it is my place to preside and let you speak. 


IS STRIKE-BREAKING AN ASSET? 


Mr. Chase (Youngstown, Ohio): I wonder if this business is 
not really a struggle for existence. I wonder if the colored people 


108 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


can afford to give up the hold that they now have in industry through 
the threat of being able to break strikes, until the labor unions 
assure them, not only with promises but with more than promises, 
that they will treat them absolutely equally with the white people 
if they join the union. Very often they will promise them that 
but when it comes to a crisis the white man will draw back; or the 
colored people will do it first. You have got to have some way 
of being assured of that before they will give up the power which 
they now have. 


AN EXPERIMENT IN ERIE, PA. 


Rev. P. C. Childs (Erie, Pa.): With reference to Erie, Pa., we 
have found that previous to the migration shops that were open to 
colored people had been closed. But we found that it was necessary 
to make an investigation and find out why the shops had been 
closed to our people, and in making the investigation we found 
that many of our people coming into that section only worked for a 
few hours or a few days and left the employer without helpers, and 
so he said to us: “If you can bring to us men who will stay we will 
give them consideration in any department of our plant and give 
them to do whatever they are qualified to do in our plant.” So we 
took in hand the labor question ourselves and directed it generally, 
and we have had wonderful success as a result of that. We tried to 
place men who would work, or were responsible. 

Miss Van Kleeck: Was that done through a Committee? 

Mr. Childs: Through the pastors of the churches. 


FACTS ABOUT CHICAGO 


George R. Arthur (Chicago, Ill.): The proportion of colored 
workers is about 32%. How migration affects us?—favorably. The 
proportion of white and colored workers in certain occupations. 

. . . | judge you mean by that the different skilled occupations ? 

Miss Van Kleeck: Any which illustrate changes. 

Mr. Arthur: Sixteen per cent are in skilled occupations. New 
industries were opened up by the Y.W.C. A. and the Y.M.C.A. 
and the Urban League; especially the Y. W., in a number of fac- 
tories where girls are now working on high-power machines. In 
the larger industries the skilled mechanic is being absorbed as fast 
as he comes into Chicago. As to personnel policies: We find that the 
larger industries are favorable to colored workers. Industry itself 
does not care much about the color as long as the work is produced 
and the interest on investment is made. We found that in Chicago. 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 109 


Regarding the public schools: We have no technical schools in 
Chicago that train for the industries, except for highly technical 
positions. The difficult problems are met usually by employees’ 
representation in the plant,—representatives elected by the employees 
plus the representatives appointed by the company meet in council 
and settle all problems relating to plant life. As to the attitude of 
workers toward one another: We have found that when the workers 
are left alone and no propaganda started either from the top or out- 
side, as workers on a common job they get along fine, but when 
propaganda is brought in, the regular schism then, of course, occurs. 
I think if you will let the workers alone they will work well and 
without friction. 

Miss Van Kleeck: When you said migration had a favorable 
effect on the position of the colored worker, just how is that so? 

Mr. Arthur: Migration brings to the city the best trained men 
of the South—men who have been molders, for instance, and the 
highest priced jobs in the industries can be filled by these colored 
men from the South. Because of their race consciousness they not only 
perform 100% but possibly 150% in order to keep the job, because 
they know that in slack time they will go out if they do not doa 
little bit more than the other fellow. 

Miss Van Kleeck: Is restriction of European immigration open- 
ing those jobs? 

Mr. Arthur: No, supply and demand. 

Miss Van Kleeck: Presumably, then, there is a shortage of labor 
in Chicago which makes it possible for new workers to come in. 

Mr. Arthur: It depends upon the season of the year. But when 
the thing is at high tide there will be a shortage of labor and there 
will be more colored men coming in from the South. 


NEW JOBS IN INDIANAPOLIS 


Mr. Charles O. Lee (Indianapolis, Ind.): Justa statement or two 
of the facts in our city. The colored laborer is taking the place of 
the foreign laborer previously employed. In the ten years between 
1910 and 1920, while there was an increase of almost 13,000 colored 
people in Indianapolis, there was an actual decrease of almost 3,000 
of the foreign-born. The plants in which the colored people are 
particularly prominent are the packing industries and molding. 
In 1910 there were about 50 skilled molders in Indianapolis. In 
1920 they had risen to some 600 or 700 all told. The same is 
true in the packing industry. There were very few colored workers 
in skilled and in semi-skilled jobs in the packing industries in 1910, 


110 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


but in 1920 there was quite an increase in the skilled and semi- 
skilled workers. We have a glove company up there that opened up 
a branch, and all of the operators were colored girls. They were 
planning some time ago to put the girls in the office as well as out 
in the plant itself, and run the thing from top to bottom with colored 
girls. About the attitude—I have talked personally to a few of the 
employers of colored labor, and they say they much prefer it to foreign 
labor, and there is a good spirit, so far as I know, between the 
white and colored workers in these various industries, especially 
packing and molding. 

Bishop George C. Clement (Louisville, Ky.) : What is the attitude 
of organized labor, skilled labor, for instance, in the molding indus- 
try? Are these Negro molders coming up from Chattanooga and 
Birmingham becoming part of the labor union controlling those in- 
dustries ? 

Mr. Lee: I think the attitude in Indianapolis of organized labor 
toward the colored man is about the same as it is the country over. 

Bishop Clement: Negroes are not members of the labor unions 
in the South. When they come North they find that, in order to 
continue in their jobs in normal times, they must be taken into the 
organizations, and I have seen in several cities where I go that that 
is a crucial matter. 

Mrs. M. Lee Anderson (Dayton, Ohio): Dayton is considered a 
factory city. This attracted for us quite a share of the migration 
and as very little opportunity was given them in the shop work there 
it has created quite a labor situation. We feel fortunate in having 
added to our Interracial Council a member of the labor unions and 
he is working with us on these problems in Dayton and the outlook 
is pleasing so far. 


ATTITUDE OF UNIONS IN NEWARK, N. J. 


Rev. George M. Plaskett (Orange, N. J.): I am speaking for 
Essex County, N. J. and my information comes from the social 
workers in Newark. Migration has brought us many people who 
remain in Newark rather than go on to New York, and many of 
them are unskilled workers. Some are in the factories as molders. 
They are not in the unions. A few have joined in individual cases. 
Then, in such trades as carpentry, the colored people have a union 
of their own. There is a complaint, however, that when they join 
the union and go for a job the secretaries will discriminate against 
Negroes in favor of whites, so sometimes the Negro will be waiting 
for a job, having come first to the labor office, but the secretary will 


OO EE a 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 111 


send out a white man who came in after him. Women are operatives 
in the factories, are working with whites, and they get along very, 
very well. 

8. A. Allen (Boston, Mass.): That is interesting about the glove 
factory in Indianapolis. I wonder if we could know the circum- 
stance which made it possible to open that opportunity to colored 
girls. Our problem in Boston is to try to have white employers 
direct their attention to colored labor. 


HOW A FACTORY WAS OPENED TO COLORED GIRLS 


Miss May Belcher (Indianapolis, Ind.): The Y. W. C. A. began 
work in that glove factory in February, 1923. At that time they had 
just closed the factory to colored girls because of indifference, morale 
and that sort of thing. Our Committee on Industry in the Y. We Cra: 
branch for colored girls asked the privilege of working with those 
girls for a few months to see if we could save the factory to them. 
The consequence was we got them all to the Association and organ- 
ized a club among them and started to build morale and to show 
the girls their responsibility for keeping that factory intact for 
colored girls. About Easter the management called us up and 
said the whole atmosphere in the factory had changed. They sent 
us a letter which we have in our files saying the same thing. They 
also said if those girls continued to bring up output it would be 
second to no factory that they had. If they continued to do as well 
as they had been doing in the last three months they would build 
a factory that would accommodate five hundred colored girls. Every 
authority said it was the best lighted, the most sanitary, the most 
beautiful and attractive factory of its kind in the country. Just 
a few months ago the management wanted some sample work for 
exhibition purposes and they refused work from the other factories 
and took the work from these girls. 

Miss Van Kleeck: Why did they decide, originally, to take colored 
girls? 

Miss Belcher: They opened that branch as an experiment, and I 
understand that the experiment was to continue for about two years 
to see if they could make these girls an asset in industry. What 
they are doing now is to say very frankly that that factory, accord- 
ing to its numbers, is doing the best work of any factory in the com- 
munity. They have a factory for white girls that employs about 
900. That for colored has a capacity of about 500. Business has 
now slumped so that they are employing only 190 girls. ‘They 
have time-keepers and floor women of color. One of the managers 


112 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


is a white woman who first came into the factory and taught glove 
making. ‘The superintendent of this factory is a white man from 
Kentucky. He has done everything he could to help bring this 
factory up to the standard he now has. 

F. EH. DeFrantz (Indianapolis, Ind.): I want to ask if the 
opening up of this other factory was not done also with the idea 
of operating on a lower wage scale? 

Miss Belcher: I don’t know whether that was the first con- 
sideration, but I know now that the girls work on piece work. When 
we started our work in the factory the average girl was making $6 
or $8 a week, and one of the great complaints was that the girls 
played on their jobs and there was much turnover of labor. Now 
on piece work the average girl is getting $15 to $18 per week and 
some are getting $25. 


INCREASE IN COLORED WORKERS IN COLUMBUS, OHIO 


Dr, Cox (Columbus, Ohio): I happen to have figures on one of 
our largest industries, the Buckeye Steel Casting Co., which, like 
all of our Columbus industries, is not run in agreement with organ- 
ized labor. We are under the great American plan of the open shop. 
Ten years ago there were 10% colored men and 40% foreign 
and the rest native white. Now the figures are exactly the reverse: 
There are 10% foreign, 40% colored and 50% native white in this 
largest industry in our city. 

A rather aggravating fact came to me which I would like to 
have brought out in Mr. Washington’s remarks: The Pennsylvania 
Rk. R. in our city is taking on a lot of colored folk. One of the 
men said he was advanced right along the same as the rest and 
now even has the position of foreman but that he was getting 40 
cents an hour for the same work that the white man was getting 
70 cents an hour for; and that obtained throughout. 


A MANUFACTURER’S EXPERIENCE 


H. L. Sanders (Indianapolis, Ind.): JI am a manufacturer. 
We employ in our plant about forty men and women. We have 
been in one square for over thirty years. I wish to say that before 
these factories in Indianapolis were open for colored girls white 
men of our city called on me and asked me if I thought that if 
they should open a factory for colored girls and men, would they 
make good? I told them that from the experience I have had they 
would. As I said, I have been there over thirty years in one place, 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 113 


manufacturing. Our output is over $50,000 a year. Now the 
young men that we have had in our plant, the majority of them, 
stay there from one to two and three years. I have some there 
that have been for ten years in my plant. They earn from $12 to 
$20 per week on piece work. 

I understand from the gentleman who runs the glove factory at 
Indianapolis that their girls in that plant make about the same 
as they do in my plant. On my recommendation this glove factory 
was opened, and they also opened an overall factory and our girls 
were put in there, and they made good. An umbrella manufac- 
turer came to me and asked me if I thought he could teach our 
girls to make umbrellas. I told him our girls could do anything 
other girls could do. He opened an umbrella factory and ran ten 
years with our girls, and he made money enough in that time and 
he quit. I want to say that if they just give them a show our girls 
will make good. 


PERSONNEL PROBLEMS IN CHICAGO PLANTS 


Rev. Charles W. Burton (Chicago, Ill.): It has been my privilege 
at certain times to talk to personnel directors of industrial plants 
in Chicago and certain problems have been brought to my atten- 
tion. I suppose the industries that employ the largest number of 
Negroes would be the stockyards industries, the packing industry, 
the steel industry, and then the corn products industry employs a 
great number of colored people. I remember especially the per- 
sonnel director out in the corn products plant telling me of the 
experiences they have had with their workers generally and especially 
with reference to colored people. Up until the time of the War 
not so many colored men had been employed there. They had a cer- 
tain part of work there at the plant that they had found that the 
Russians could do better than anybody else, and when the war came 
a good many of the Russians had to go back home. So then they 
thought that they would try out the Negro to see if he would fit 
into that particular part of the industry, and when they put the 
Negroes in they found that the Negroes did it 100% better than 
the Russians, and even when the Russians came back the Negroes 
kept that particular part of the work. 

One thing complained of was that the turn over was consider- 
able among the colored workers; the colored people—some of them— 
would work for a few days, a few weeks or a few months, and get 
a good batch of money on hand, and then take time off for a few 
days or weeks or months. It seems to me that a conference like 


114 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


this ought to bring some weight to bear on a situation like that. 
Doubtless many of our communities are putting it in the hearts and 
minds of working men and women to stick to their jobs. 

I have talked to some of the men who were employed there 
about joining the unions. Some of them go into the unions and 
some of them do not. There seems to be a reason why a good many 
more do not get into the unions. From actual experience they 
said that when they get into the labor unions they are discriminated 
against in very definite ways. If only so many men are to be 
employed, if any are to be let go, they let the Negroes go first. 
Some influence ought to be brought to bear on a situation like 
that. If we are to uphold labor unions and if labor unions are 
to become prevalent throughout American industry, then the labor 
union must be fair to all of its members. 


RECRUITING FOR NORTHERN MILLS 


Dr. William S. Keller (Cincinnati, Ohio): I am familiar with 
a large steel corporation in the vicinity of this city, a town of 
about 25,000 people, that has had the practice in recent years of 
sending a representative to the South and bringing up to this steel 
mill groups of colored workmen for common labor. After these men 
were brought to this mill they were housed in large dormitories and 
it has created in this community a problem in health, a problem 
in housing and a social evil. I fancy, also, that it has created a 
problem in the communities which they have left. I am wonder- 
ing, for instance, if the improved economic conditions, increased 
salaries probably that have been received up North, have not been off- 
set by what it might have done to their families at home. I am 
asking this question, please: Is this way of securing common labor 
an injury to the rights of labor in the nation? Is it an injury by 
one state to another to secure labor under such conditions? 

Miss Van Kleeck: We have now before us a good many prob- 
lems and there will be time later on for discussion. We have com- 
pleted the half hour of general discussion from the floor, and I 
would like to ask Bishop Phillips, the Chairman, if he will call on 
two members of the Committee—Mrs. Elliott and Mr. Greene. Mrs. 
Elliott will speak on Women in Industry. Mr. Greene is personnel 
worker for the Westinghouse Electric Co. 


WOMEN IN INDUSTRY 


Mrs. Elizabeth N. Elliott (Cincinnati, O.): During the World 
War when there was a wholesale recruiting of forces through which 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 115 


the great conflict might be speedily and victoriously ended, the call 
came to Negro women to enter the growing army of American women 
workers. Without an industrial background this brought many 
economic problems to our women in industry. From the employer’s 
viewpoint colored women were said to give much dissatisfaction. 
They are slow producers. ‘They are listless at their work and they 
will not make time. On the other hand, they are more loyal to their 
employer and they are cheerful and intelligent—more intelligent than 
the foreign girl. Sometimes the colored employees feel that they 
find a prejudice on the part of the employer which is not always 
justified. 

We have in Cincinnati 50,383 wage-earning women. Of these 
20,100 are employed in industries. There are 900 colored women 
in industries in Cincinnati. Their work includes garment making, 
pure food industries, laundries, tobacco industries, elevator operating, 
cafeteria work, hotel and stores and office and maid service. That 
figure does not include domestic work. 

In the past two years in Cincinnati we have been able to create 
three new distinct occupations for colored women where colored. 
women have never been employed before. These occupations were 
opened through the Y. W. C. A. and their program of reaching em- 
ployers. We have a garment factory here in the city, the Rauh & 
Mack Shirt Co., which we feel has done a great deal toward creat- 
ing new opportunities for colored women. I wish to say, however, 
that it was not a war-born opportunity. This was the only trade 
in Cincinnati that employed colored girls before the War, and since 
the War they have increased. Before the War this plant employed 
about 40 colored workers. Since then the increase has been to 100, 
and they will put on 50 more if we can find the girls to fill the 
places. This is a-model establishment. They have splendid work- 
ing conditions; they give equal pay for skilled work. White and 
colored girls work in this plant, although in different rooms, but 
they have a fine cafeteria where both eat; they sit at their own 
tables. There is always a fine morale in the factory, never any dis- 
satisfaction, and we have the finest kind of workers. High grade 
work is done in it. ; 

In all new places we proceed to organize the girls into groups 
where we can bring them together to talk over the problems and 
get right directly to them what they owe to the employer and how 
to meet the difficulties which they meet every day and how to give 
their best to the work they are engaged in. We have been success- 
ful in placing elevator operators in one of the new large down- 
town department stores. These girls are giving splendid service 


116 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


and by their service we have been able to open in the last month 
another place for elevator girls. We have been able to put them 
in the hotels in the city and they are giving perfect satisfaction. 

We organize them into clubs. We have conferences with the 
girls and conferences with the employers. We have an employment 
agency and through this employment agency we help the employer 
to get the best type of girl, so that they depend upon us in find- 
ing girls and by so doing there is very little labor turnover. The 
employer is always ready to advance the girls. They start them in 
the same kind of work in this city wherever colored girls are em- 
ployed; they give them the same opportunity and the same wage, and 
we have very little friction where colored and white girls are employed 
together. 


A NEGRO PERSONNEL SUPERVISOR’S VIEW 


Chairman: We have another statement to come from Mr. Cyrus 
T. Greene, of Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Mr. Greene: ‘There is one thing I am about to learn in my five 
years’ experience with the Westinghouse Manufacturing Co., and 
that is that a great many of our problems depend upon our ap- 
proach. I think that the success of an approach to a problem 
depends upon what we know about what we are going at. First, 
know what you want; second, know what you go up against; third, 
know what you have with which to go up against that which you have 
to go up against; and then do it. Many problems depend upon our 
approach to what we are after, and our approach depends entirely 
upon our knowledge of the situation. 

The failures or successes of workmen or groups of workmen 
have direct relationship with an individual’s or a group of individuals’ 
approach to industry, and the Negro is not an exception. His 
approach depends on his knowledge of what he is about to ap- 
proach. One of the most essential things to know is the view- 
point of the leaders in industry. Of course, the older the estab- 
lishment, the larger the organization, the better organized it is 
and more difficult it is to get the viewpoint of such men. When 
this is possible the leader’s viewpoint becomes the workmen’s view- 
point. He knows that part of the responsibility is his. Expressing 
it in the military term, he is able to make an “estimate of the situa- 
tion” —knows what is to be done, knows what opposition is expected 
in such an effort, knows his or her ability to meet such an opposition 
and finally makes use of such information to make good. 

The trouble has been that too many of our men have approached 


INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 117 


industry with their knowledge limited to three ideas—get all the 
money they can, get it quick and get away in a hurry. The 
speaker is glad to state that some have a different approach, and 
an observation at Hast Pittsburg, Pa., shows that men often quit 
to return later with a better approach. 

While a very little can be said about Negroes’ representation in 
personnel policy. Negroes are retained by some firms in somewhat 
an advisory capacity. This has been the means of giving the Negro 
workmen a better approach and has been most successful with small 
firms and in small industrial villages. Generally speaking no dis- 
crimination is shown in wages paid Negro workmen on the same 
class occupation as white men. In fact, in most cases the work is 
done on a piece, time, or tonnage basis and a man is paid according 
to the amount of the output. 

In the North and West, industry is well organized; a new 
applicant, white, black or brown, meets opposition with some advan- 
tages on the side of the dominant race. However, the theory is that 
the interviewer in employment offices makes no discrimination in 
placing men on the jobs that are open and for which they are 
qualified. 

It is the opinion of the speaker that the Negro has made him- 
self in the last ten years a larger factor in American industry and 
is more dependable but there is still a great opportunity for a more 
liberal attitude in such an endeavor. 

I would like to say just a word about attitudes. The attitudes, 
of course, vary, but we have not as yet shown the proper attitude 
in going into the shops, particularly around Pittsburgh. They don’t 
place the blame on the men that come from the shops; they place 
it on the leadership, and they said: “Greene, if there is one thing you 
tell those folks at that conference, tell them the colored preachers 
have not given the proper religious instruction to the workers here 
in the shop.” : | 

Dr. Haynes: What do you mean by religious instruction? 

Mr. Greene: They feel that a man will listen to the colored 
preacher when he will not listen to his foreman. And when we 
are able to reach them that way, we will get better results—instead 
of this indifference that you have discussed, so that a man will come 
to the shop; he will not work for a day and stay off two days. 

Mr. Plaskett (Orange, N. J.): I am a preacher. Do your men 
go to church? | 

Mr. Greene: Some of them, about fifty per cent. 

Mr. Plaskett: Very few of them. 


118 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


LABOR UNIONS AND COLORED WORKERS 


Miss Van Kleeck: May I just say that it is very natural that 
the preachers should wish to speak on this point, but I am going 
to beg you to be patient because I think that toward the end of 
our program, after you have heard a little more, you will have an 
idea of what it would be wise for preachers to say to their workers. 
If you will wait until that time I think that we can discuss the 
question more profitably. I am anxious that we should take advan- 
tage of the fact that we have here, as a member of our Committee, 
Mr. John P. Frey. 

Almost every question in this discussion has had something to 
do with the relation of the labor organizations to colored workers. 
Mr. Frey is a national leader of the labor movement in this country, 
a former member of the Executive Committee of the American 
Federation of Labor, President of the Ohio Federation of Labor, 
besides being a prominent leader in the national organization of 
molders, editor of its paper, and in touch with the thought and spirit 
of the labor movement. Mr. Frey also organized the first union 
of colored workers among the molders. He has had years of interest 
in this particular problem and I think it very important at this 
moment that Mr. Frey take fifteen minutes to talk with us about it. 

Mr, Frey (Cincinnati, O.): Miss Chairman and those who are 
present: This question that is being discussed this morning is 
one to which I have given a great deal of attention for the best 
part of a lifetime. Miss Van Kleeck has just said I have been 
an officer in the trade union movement for many years. I spent 
three or four years in studying our problem in the South, and 
twenty-six years ago I organized the first union composed exclu- 
sively of colored molders which had ever been organized in the 
city of Chattanooga, when our white members—I will not say all 
they said to me when I began to discuss the problem of organizing 
the Negro. I recognized at that time there was no social question 
involved ; it was wholly an economic question. If a Negro made a 
casting it sold in the market at its market price, which was the 
same as though the white molder had made it, so that the white 
molder’s and the colored molder’s economic interests and welfare were 
identical. 

Since that time I have come into contact with some of the 
leaders of the colored race in this country. I have talked with 
some of the clergy, I have made an effort to find out what the 
real problem was, and in a measure perhaps I have been able to 
understand one or two angles of it. It has been touched upon 


INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 119 


slightly this morning. The thought was expressed that perhaps in 
coming North and entering the industries the Negro held the whip 
hand, that it might be well if he maintained that for a little while. 
And then I have heard some other thoughts, as to plants being 
established where Negroes are employed exclusively or where the 
percentage of Negroes to whites has grown larger and larger. Now 
from my point of view as a Cincinnatian, I am interested in know- 
ing whether the Negro, when he works in industry in the North, 
gets the same wage for the same product as a white man. 

Mr. Greene: Yes, sir, at the Westinghouse he does. 

Mr. Arthur: He does in Chicago. 

Mr. Frey: If he does not, then I have one reason why there is 
a certain amount of prejudice against him. Now, from my personal 
knowledge, taking the city of Cincinnati to begin with, and the city 
of Dayton and Springfield and others, I want you to remember this, 
that the Negro molder receives from 20% to 45% less wages for 
the same output as white molders in this State. If you would go 
with me and talk with the Negro molders who are employed in a 
foundry in Cincinnati I have in mind, they would tell you that 
they thought the organization might be a good thing for them, but 
if they became members of the trade union movement they would 
immediately lose their jobs. 

I think I have a somewhat sympathetic understanding for the 
attitude of some of the leaders of the colored people, and I want 
to bring it out now. I had the privilege of coming into contact with 
a man who, I think, was among the best known leaders of the colored 
people. He recognized the fact that the Negro was practically 
confined to the South; that there he was only an agricultural laborer ; 
that, underlying any elevation of the Negro standard of living was 
an economical factor—wages—that the standard of living would de- 
termine what kind of man he was going to be; that as a farm hand, 
if he was to remain there, his opportunities were very small; that 
he must get into the industries, he must learn trades and acquire 
skill to command a much higher wage, and in that way improve 
conditions for his family. The difficulty was in getting white em- 
ployers who would give the Negro an opportunity. He found, 
‘when he worked in the South, that when the Negro became a mem- 
ber of our organizations, he was more or less out of luck because 
when he left his town and went to a place where the white men 
‘were employed his union card was not of any value for him. It 
would not put him through. This leader recognized that the Negro 
must be placed in the industries so that he might become democratic, 
and in his influence he prevailed upon one of the largest manufac- 


120 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


turing establishments in the South to give the N egro an oppor- 
tunity. I have visited that plant a number of times and I think 
that there were about 2,000 Negroes who had been placed at work 
in that city. They were given an opportunity of learning black- 
smith’s, machinist’s, electrician’s and some of the other trades. 

But he had to pay a price to do that, and the price was that 
he should teach the members of his race to feel that they owe this 
corporation such a tremendous debt of gratitude that they would 
never do anything which would be contrary to that corporation’s 
wishes, and one of the corporation’s very strong policies was to pre- 
vent any trade union organization, so that the price he paid so 
that the members of his race could learn a trade, was to yearly hold 
meetings at which all of the Negro employees were brought to= 
gether, and advised of the dangers of organization among themselves. 
He was plain about the matter. He told them they would not be 
working there if it was not for the fact that they are not members 
of the union. In other words, this employer, while giving the Negro 
the opportunity of acquiring a trade, was exploiting them to the 
white man’s disadvantage. In this community it was only natural 
that the white man had something added to the race prejudices that 
were in the South. I do not understand this race prejudice alto- 
gether. When I began to talk with our members in the South I 
found every one of them had a Negro helper, who worked beside 
them in the factory day by day. They would not work unless they 
had a Negro helper. As they were willing to work with them side 
by side industrially, I thought there was something behind this 
question I did not understand from my up-bringing in Massachusetts. 
I found it was merely that the white employer when he had given 
the Negro an opportunity of learning a trade, too frequently exploited 
him to the white working man’s disadvantage. 

Now, then, for some of the colored leaders. I have written upon 
this question for a number of years. Not only have I worked at 
it but I have written about it; I have spoken about it. I find that 
there are a large number of the leaders of the Negro race who to-. 
day feel very much like the individual that I have just referred 
to. They see the problem very much as I did. First: Their race 
must get into industry in order to acquire mechanical ability; sec- 
ond, we must try and influence them so that they can get into the 
industries. And the Negro leader, you know, is used by those em-. 
ployers whose principal idea is to get labor at the very lowest possible 
rate, Just as some employers, who originally opened their establish- 
ments with nothing but Americans, displaced those Americans by 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 121 


non-English-speaking foreigners and are now displacing those non- 
English-speaking foreigners by the Negro. 

But the trouble is that this economic problem lies in there. The 
only way men can solve many of their problems is by getting together. 
Our civilization would crumble within a year if we were unable to 
organize. Industry could not be carried out. If there is any one 
important thing to maintain our civilization, it is organization along 
those lines that affect our welfare and our lives. The trade union 
movement is endeavoring to organize the colored man, and what I 
regret is that, occasionally, some leader of the colored race criticizes 
the aim of the trade union movement because of its unwillingness 
to take in the Negro or that it discriminates against him. I have 
heard that same statement of discrimination made by Russian Jews, 
who were in our industries. I have heard it from the Slavs in our 
industries. I have heard the same statement made from every group 
of workmen who were not white Americans, that we discriminated 
against them when they became members of the unions. 

The Negro has to work out his own problems in industry. The 
trade union movement is endeavoring to elevate the standards. It 
seems to me there is nothing more important at the present time 
than for leaders of the colored race to impress upon their own that 
if they hope to make progress they must do so through organization, 
and that it is to their advantage to do the same thing the white 
man does to protect his standard of living. This trade union move- 
ment is tremendously important for colored men, and there is this: 
whenever the colored man becomes a member of the trade union he 
receives the same wage and the same protection as the white man 
or non-English-speaking foreigner. And while the church has a 
tremendously important part to play, not only in the South but since 
migration in the North, the industrial organization is equally 
important. 

The welfare of the colored man in industry cannot be left free 
and unregulated in the employers’ hands; he must do the same thing 
the white man has done. The white man in industry was very 
little better than a serf at the time of the Revolutionary War; 
industrially he was nowhere. Everything he has secured, his 
shorter work day, the recognition of his rights by the employer, the 
regulation of his wages, have all been by codperative advantage. 
There is no cure other than that for industrial injustice. There is 
no path the colored man can travel which is different from what 
the white man has been forced to struggle over in order to secure 
industrial justice, and to get in industry that same voice for deter- 
mining justice and improvement of the conditions of labor that 


122 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


we have politically. If there is any one thing I would like to impress 
particularly upon those who represent the colored race, it is this: 
that they have two problems—one to get their own race into the 
industries where they will pass from unskilled labor to semi-skilled 
labor, and then into the group of finished mechanics; along with 
that they must bear in mind that the Negro must be trained and 
told to demand a dollar for every bit of product that the white 
man would receive a dollar for. Much of this condition which 
we read about, much of this racial prejudice, is due to the fact 
that one group of men come into a community and, by working for 
a lower wage, immediately lower the standard of living for those 
already in the community. That is not a healthful condition; it is 
one which is bound to bring about more or less feeling. 

The official statements of the American Federation of Labor, 
welcoming the Negro into the trade union movement, may mean a 
great deal or they may mean nothing. Statements are made some- 
times for shop effect. The only way to determine whether the 
American trade union movement is sincere or not is to find what 
they do. We are trying as an American trade union movement to 
organize the Negro. We expect to meet the objections of the Negroes’ 
employer in that matter, but we do regret tremendously that we 
often meet with the harmful influence of the leaders of the colored 
race in the community—sometimes the editor of the colored paper, 
sometimes the clergyman of the colored church. We understand 
the reason why he is disturbed. He knows the employer’s attitude; 
he feels that if he advises the members of his race to join: the 
trade union the employer’s interest in keeping the colored man at 
work will be turned into antagonism. And yet if there is to be 
built up that condition which every colored man is entitled to 
have, then, it seems to me, the leaders of the colored race must 
do what they can to assist the American trade union movement in 
organizing the Negro and to use the economic truth that the Negro 
is entitled to the same wage as a white man for an equal product. 
As soon as the Negro understands that, in my opinion, a very 
large per cent, if not all, of the so-called industrial race prejudice 
which exists will vanish into thin air. 

I know the difficulty in doing that. I have seen a trade union 
movement charged by prominent leaders of the colored race with 
refusing to take Negroes into their organization. I have had corre- 
spondence with these men; I have proved to them they were wrong. 
IT have said I, personally, am now endeavoring to organize the 
colored molders; will you give me a communication, signed, in 
which you say that you believe it will be advisable for the colored 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 123 


man to join the trade union movement? I never yet have received 
such a communication. I am making a very blunt statement, but. 
I am also giving you my reason. I see the problem in the leader’s 
mind: If I do this I may be interfering with the progress of my 
race in learning the trade. But there is your problem; it is an 
economic problem. It is based upon the wages in the envelope. The 
white manufacturer in the North, who gives the Negro an oppor- 
tunity, is not to be judged by whether he gives the Negro a chance 
to work but whether he pays the same wages for that work as he 
pays the white man. 

Miss Van Kleeck: May I ask that, if you are willing, we postpone 
our questions until the report of the Committee is brought in? There 
is plenty of time, but if we stop now we shall disarrange our pro- 
gram. I would like to ask Bishop Phillips if he will introduce Mr. 
Washington who is to give the twenty-minute address. 

Mr. Forrester B. Washington, Executive Secretary of the Arm- 
strong Association, Philadelphia, Pa., addressed the conference as 
follows: 


My speech will be more or less hit or miss, and you can sympathize 
with me after listening to reports from all over the country, as compre- 
hensive as they were, how little there is left for me. However, I have 
gotten some stimulus from the various reports and a great deal from the 
last report, and perhaps I had better stop there. I may miss a couple of 
cylinders but I think Mr. Frey missed three or four himself. 

I agree with the last speaker that Negroes and whites ought to get 
together, but I think also that the craftsmen of the American Federation 
of Labor ought to realize that they need the Negro as much as the Negro 
needs them, and, secondly, that the principle of collective bargaining is the 
fact. that labor, black or white, adult or child, have common interests. Now, 
if organized labor organizes to keep the Negro out it seems to me that the 
sensible Negro will see that if any organization organizes to keep a man 
earning less than somebody else is earning, that if he can get a higher wage 
by undercutting that man, he is justified in doing it. That is self-preserva- 
tion, and self-preservation, in the last analysis, is the more fundamental 
urge, the more logical urge than theoretical argument. 

As a matter of fact I am.a member of a trade union. But I know this, 
that there are trade unions that do not admit Negroes. By no construction, 
no theory or anything else can you prove that Negroes can get into the 
Machinists’ Local in any city I know of. He cannot become a plumber in 
Philadelphia. If a Negro applies, the man who issues permits won’t give 
him a license. The members of the licensing board are made up of master 
plumbers. If a Negro in some way is able to set himself up as a plumber 
when he goes to buy fixtures from a plumber’s outfitter, they refuse to sell 
to him. When certain plumbers’ outfitters have sold fixtures to Negro 

lumbers the plumbers’ organizations have boycotted these firms. Up to 
1918 they had seventy-five colored motormen in Detroit on the trolley car 
system. And then during the trolley car strike, you remember, that Ex- 
President Taft sitting as Wage Labor Board head granted one of the stipula- 
tions laid down against their colored brothers by the white motormen, 
namely, that the company agree that there would never be any more colored 
men than the 75 men they had. That is why you have got to consider this 


124 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


thing from many angles. You cannot say flat-footedly that the Negro does 
not have difficulty with the American Federation type of craft unionism. 

I don’t believe that in the anthracite coal industry there is a single 
Negro miner. There are plenty in the bituminous industry. In the South 
where there are bituminous mines it is non-union, anyway, but up here it is 
possible to selfishly monopolize industry. Up at Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, 
Pa., where practically the only anthracite industry in the country exists, 
they will not admit the Negro, for no reason except the selfish monopolistic 
idea of the American Federation of Labor. In Detroit the only way the 
Negroes got into the Ford and Cadillac plants was because these plants were 
open shops and Negroes trained in their industries in the South were able 
to go there and get good jobs and they did not have to undercut anybody 
at that time. 

Negroes are not essentially scabs. I was up at a meeting in Indianapolis 
recently of bituminous miners and I do not think there were any more pro- 
nounced unionists than the Negro delegates. In the packing industry in 
Chicago, Negroes entered as strike breakers twenty years ago, but when 
I was in Chicago a few years ago, a Negro was vice-president of the Stock- 
yards Labor Council. Negroes are good unionists in the Butcher Workmen’s 
Local, and they are good unionists under a great deal of pressure, because 
many of the Negroes work in the yards in various mechanical trades, and 
their union cards are not worth a snap of the fingers outside of the yards, 
as no American Federation of Labor local will recognize them. Colored 
women in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, in the last few months, 
have acted as pickets in the garment workers’ strikes. Something like 
150 of our colored girls are in the garment organizations in Philadelphia. 
It is a city in which Negroes have not progressed as rapidly as they have 
in the West, because of the presence of a large reservoir of foreign-born labor. 

The one thing that differentiates the situation of the Negro from that 
of the Slav and other foreign-born is that the Negro did not enter industry 
by under-cutting wages. The Negro is the one racial group that came into 
industry as the result of the work of Providence, or whatever you want 
to call it. The Negro entered industry on a large scale as a result of the 
War. At the present time the Negro is not going into any industry because 
of lower wages but because of the slackening of immigration. 

Then, to me there is something that is a great deal more important than 
the mere fact that is raised by the economist. I am wondering whether 
it is not opportunity which acts as effectively as self-organization. We 
ask, how do you get Negroes in these various industries? By breaking down 
the two chief obstacles, the inertia of the employer and the opposition of 
the white employee, who objects to Negroes. It seems to me—and I would 
like to raise the question and let some lady here answer it—that Negro 
men are moving up in the industrial scale but Negro women are having 
a hard time. It is pitiful to have to glory over the fact that the colored 
women are going into the garment industry. From the point of view of the 
community as a whole it is one of the least desirable occupations for 
women but it is a big thing for colored women because so few occupations 
are open to them. And yet in the majority of factory employments in which 
women are engaged we are told time and again: “We cannot take colored 
women because the white women would not work with them.” TI have 
talked on the situation with Y.W.C.A. leaders and they state that this is 
the attitude of a number of girls. Social workers also agree in this. Take 
the problems of the high school in the North. In the swimming pools in 
high schools, for instance. You can mix the boys easily but with the girls 
it is more difficult. It may not be a sex problem at all. It may be due 
to the training of women, the fact that conventionalities have been impressed 
upon them more than upon men. So I would answer the last speaker’s 
question by saying that two things are necessary. One must bring to the 
employers of his city evidences, in the shape of photographs, statements from 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 125 


employers, statistics and the like, as to where Negroes are being used in the 
West on jobs they are not being used on in Boston; secondly, to try to get 
members of interracial committees and other white people who profess to be 
interested in the solution of this interracial conflict, to work among the 
white employers, because that is, after all, where the big problem is. 

The gentlemen also raised this question about the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
that we must approach these things in a scientific spirit. If you will 
simply take an instance and try to reason from it, it is very unscientific. 
The scientific method is to get all your possible facts, assemble them and 
get a law from that, and apply it to the situation. If you get one man 
who says he is not getting as much as the white man, he may be an ignorant 
man. He may not know how to figure his time card. My experience is this: 
The Pennsylvania Railroad has about 75,000 employees scattered from Louis- 
ville, Ky., to Philadelphia, and along this main line, taking in Pittsburgh, 
Columbus, Cincinnati, etc., they found that the so-called Nordic groups were 
passing off of the top and immigration was not supplying any more 
northern Europeans. That was the group that constituted their skilled 
employees. On the other hand, for ten years they had been trying to make 
skilled men out of the Italians and other Mediterranean races and at the 
end of ten years they claim they have not been able to make as good shop 
mechanics out of the southern or Mediterranean groups as they believe they 
could make out of Negroes. 

What the War did for the Negro was that it proved to many employers 
who employed him in an emergency, that he was as good a workman or better 
than many of the other national groups. I do not want to make any un- 
scientific observations myself, but I will say this, that the Clark plant of 
the Carnegie Steel Co., made a study of its 41 nationalities not so long ago, 
and basing it upon its pay rolls, found that the Negro stood twelfth in the 
list, and the eleven groups that were more efficient than the Negro were all 
members of the older immigrant groups, but that the newer groups fell below 
the Negro’s rating of efficiency. 

The Detroit Community Fund about four years ago decided to make a 
study of the comparative efficiency of Negroes in industrial occupations. 
They found in the Morgan & Wright Tire Co., a branch of the U. 8S. Rubber 
Co., that they could study 80 colored men and 80 white men, unbeknown to 
themselves, working eight hours a day at piece work on a semi-skilled 
process. They studied their payrolls for six bi-weekly pay days, and found 
at the end of that time that there was practically no difference in the produc- 
tivity of the two groups, but that this qualitative and quantitative test 
showed that the races were about even from the point of view of efficiency. 

This Pennsylvania Railroad survey also showed that a man from Cincin- 
nati, unless he has travelled a great deal, cannot reason about the possibilities 
of using Negroes somewhere else. We found that as one progressed north 
on the Pennsylvania lines one would find more and more Negroes working 
in the shops, and that seemed to be because more and more the competition 
there was foreign-born, but when one came down to Columbus one still found 
Negroes working in the shops, but a large proportion were working on 
unskilled jobs. At Cincinnati a still larger group. At Louisville practically 
all. Yet at places like “Crestline, Ohio, Negroes were earning the very 
highest wages,—were of the aristocracy of mechanics. What they said at 
Cincinnati and at Louisville is that the reason you do not find Negroes in 
the skilled occupations in these cities is because of the large supply of white 
Americans, and as long as they could get a supply of southern white boys 
and men in Louisville and Cincinnati and Columbus, they would not use 
the Negroes; but when one approached Pittsburg, and went from there 
through the north toward Chicago, one found the colored man working in the 
skilled jobs. Jt simply proves that people observe a situation such as I 
have just discussed, and because the Negroes are not employed because of 
some other labor supply in the community, they believe that is because the 


126 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION | 


Negro is inefficient. Then they will say that one job in that community is a 
white man’s and the other is a Negro’s, and the white man’s job must be 
superior and the Negro’s job inferior. 

I am up against the same situation in Philadelphia, that you confront 
in this section of the country. We find it is very difficult to get colored 
girls in any type of industry. We can still place them in the garment 
industry but that is simply spreading them out on the same level. Last 
year a little colored girl graduated from the Philadelphia School of Design- 
ing for Women. She won five prizes—the first prize for the best design for 
a lace curtain, the first prize for the best design for cretonne, the first prize 
for the best design for linoleum, the first prize for the best design for the 
school catalogue for next year, and one other prize. Those prizes were all 
awarded by the textile industry of Kensington or by similar industries in 
Newark, N. J. It has been the habit of the men awarding those prizes to 
ask for the winner to be placed in their designing departments, but when 
this colored girl turned up as a prize winner nobody wanted her, because she 
was colored. That shows the ridiculousness of race prejudice. 

This is what we did in this matter, which may be a suggestion to some 
of you. We called together a meeting of the vice-president of the Chamber 
of Commerce, got the head of the Philadelphia Personnel Association, which 
represents something like 3,500. manufacturers, and two or three other 
people of that type, and presented this girl’s case, and then the Committee 
appointed a chairman, who happened to be the secretary of this Personnel 
Association of Philadelphia, and he presented the case before the entire body 
of Personnel Managers of the city of Philadelphia, and the girl got a job. 
There was some employer that was willing to take a chance on a girl who 
had demonstrated her efficiency and she obtained employment. 

At the present time we are attacking another problem which might be 
worth while in communities where colored women have not opportunities 
at the present time. We are training colored girls as dental assistants. 
There are a lot of colored girls coming out of high school who have good 
manners, a nice appearance, who want to work and who do not want to go 
into domestic work. We have arranged a course of twenty lessons teaching 
them how to meet patients, how to stand beside the dentist chair, how to 
sterilize instruments, helping him in every way. In Philadelphia we have 
already placed two with white dentists and have been asked to send more. 
To create industrial openings you have got to plan such a campaign. 


Chairman: I am sure you will pardon me if I pause a moment to 
do something. I want to introduce to this audience this morning 
a man who has long been a friend of the Negro in this country, 
interested in all the movements which have tended to better his con- 
dition, and who has given his long life to the service of the race, 
ending with years of service in Africa. I will not have him make 
a speech, but I want to introduce to the audience this morning 
Bishop Joseph C. Hartzell of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Bishop I am very glad to see you. (Bishop Hartzell was received 
with applause. ) 

The report of the Committee is next in order; it will be pre- 
sented by Miss Van Kleeck, the Chairman of the Discussion 
Committee : 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 127 


REPORT OF DISCUSSION COMMITTEE 


Miss Van Kleeck: The Chairman of the Discussion Committee 
finds it difficult to make this report. I shall have to depend upon 
very democratic methods and say that if I do not accurately interpret 


what the Committee believes, any member of the Committee will 
contradict me: 


A number of questions have been asked this morning which, after all, 
come back to certain fundamental ideas that we would like to emphasize. 
In other words we shall not deal specifically with the different questions but 
rather point out what seem to us certain high spots to keep in mind in 
our consideration of Industry and Race Relations. 

Both of the first two points relate to tendencies and movements in indus- 
try with which we must get in line when we are discussing race relations. The 
first fact to keep in mind is the development of what might be called more 
careful and scientific, as well as more social, personnel policies in industry. 
Industry has been learning that it must give special attention to the problems 
of relationships with employees in its own plant; that it must apply to 
those problems the methods of science; that it must test results by experi- 
ment; that if workers are to do their best in the plant they must be 
studied as individuals, they must be trained as individuals, they must be 
assigned to the right jobs, they must be transferred if they are not in the 
right job, there must be provision made for promoting them; there must 
be, in general, that attitude on the part of the plant and within the plant 
itself which gets the best results from the individual. The development of 
that movement in industry will tend toward a solution of the problem of 
race relations because it is all in the direction of substituting science and 
fairness of judgment for prejudice. 

A second big movement which is more fundamental is what we must 
call, for lack of a better term, democracy in industry. A new recognition 
is coming of the fact that the workers must have a share in determining what 
the conditions of their employment shall be. As one member of the Com- 
mittee puts it: “We do not question theoretical rights today. We must 
talk, not in terms of rights but in terms of function; that is to say, How 
make those rights real in practice?” We believe in brotherhood, we believe 
in democracy, but we do not get it by talking about it; we get it by dis- 
covering the methods whereby the workers may be related to problems of 
management, problems of production, and by what procedure they may be 
able to express their interests. . 

We have in industry a great unused force. This force is the ideas of the 
man at the bench. Management has tended to pronounce orders and to 
expect all the workers, like a regiment, to follow along. That policy results 
in the routine attitude toward work which management itself complains of. 
The manager who reverses that procedure finds new problems on his hands, 
but he also finds that his job of management is a good deal more interesting. 
Managers are finding that the efficiency of an organization is increased when 
the workmen codperate as a group with management so that the ideas of the 
men at the bench are reflected in the decisions of managerial officials. This 
whole economic problem of race relations may well be approached by study 
of the methods whereby the democratic idea is made to function in industry. 
In large scale industry the democratic idea can only work through organiza- 
tion because groups of people can not be represented unless they are organized. 
We must study what type of organization produces the desired results. 

And now a word must be said about the particular problem of transient 
labor. The statement was made that in one place colored workers lost their 


128 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


chance to work because they were transients. One member of the Committee 
is anxious to have attention called to this fact,—that when the industries 
of the North have sent out labor scouts to the South to get laborers, they 
have been concerned with getting a certain number of workers regardless of 
quality. That has resulted in bringing workers to the North and then 
turning them loose in the community. In the North they have no ties; they 
are put in bunkhouses close to the job; they do not become part of the 
community. Naturally they become transient labor, and the problem goes 
back to the methods of recruiting which are the real cause. Industry, there- 
fore, becomes responsible to the community for the result. 

As to the specific recommendations of the Committee: The Committee 
feels that this Conference, judging from the discussion and questions which 
have been raised, would like, first, to have provision made for a long 
continued study of the relation of the American labor movement to colored 
workers, and it, therefore, recommends to the Commissions in charge of this 
Conference that they consider asking the American Federation of Labor to 
appoint or nominate a representative to serve in an advisory capacity to 
those Commissions with the idea of developing a policy and giving both 
movements a chance to work together on their common problem. 

The second recommendation is that the local interracial committees provide 
for a much more intimate knowledge of labor problems in their own com- 
munities by one or all of these three methods: First, by study of the local 
situation. For that study groups could be organized which could take 
advantage of the available material accumulating about labor problems, and 
their racial aspects. They should study industrial relations in their bearing 
upon the local situation. That is the first step. 

The second is very important: To establish contacts with those persons 
who represent the two points of view,—the point of view of labor in your 
community and the point of view of the employer. Those contacts you will 
have to work out in accordance with your local situation. But the suggestion 
made here by one local Interracial Committee which has on its membership 
a local labor leader is worth your noting. We suggest also including those 
representatives of management who are giving the most scientific attention 
to these problems, so that you will have within your own group for con- 
ference those who are prepared to advise with you on these questions. 

Finally, we believe that industrial relations offer the greatest opportunity 
today for the working out of the social message of Christianity. Where the 
principles of Christ prevail you will find recognition of the manhood of the 
workers in terms of their practical relation to management and to the de- 
termination of conditions which affect them. Conversely, the struggle for 
humanity in industry, with all its blood and suffering through the past, is 
the kind of human struggle for an ideal which will make possible the 
reflowering of Christianity in our communities. 


The Chairman: You hear the findings of this Committee. A 
motion will be in order. (Mr. Brown of Des Moines moved the adop- 
tion of the report.) (Report was unanimously adopted.) 


THE EAGAN PLAN OF EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP 


Miss Van Kleeck: Before throwing open the conference for fur- 
ther discussion we wish now to have presented to you a plan of 
relationships within a plant which has a very appropriate place in 
this conference because it was devised by Mr. Eagan, the first Chair- 
man of the Commission on Race Relations of the Federal Council 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 129 


of Churches and of the Commission on Interracial Codperation, who 
was one of the prime movers in this interracial movement as a prac- 
tical working organization. Mr. Eagan’s plant is the American Cast 
Iron Pipe Co. of Birmingham, Ala., and Mr. C. D. Barr, vice- 
president of the company and in charge of active operations, will 
describe to us the ideas back of the plan of industrial relations 
which is in effect there. 


Mr. Barr spoke as follows: Friends, after this discussion this morning and 
the report of the Committee, I don’t know whether this will be in order or not. 
However, I am going to attempt, in fifteen minutes to outline briefly what we 
know as the Eagan plan. John J. Eagan was the organizer of our company 
nearly twenty years ago. In December, 1921, he accepted the presidency on one 
condition: that the guiding principles of the business be the principles of 
Jesus Christ. And I want to testify here that we believe there is no solution 
of the race problem outside of the principles and teachings of Jesus Christ, 
and I think that applies to industry as well. 

He said the aim of our business was to be service. Jesus said He came 
into the world to serve and not to be served. Now, service in our case is 
divided into three classes: First, to the public; second, to the employees; 
third, to the stockholders. You will notice that that is the reverse of the 
usual order of business. Unfortunately for us, Mr. Eagan died a year ago 
next Monday. In leaving us he willed the plant to us forever. He was the 
only common stockholder, having called in all outstanding common stock, 
and he willed the common stock to the employees of the plant to be held in 
trust forever, so that now the employees and stockholders become one, and 
we have two lines of service, to the public who buy our stuff and to ourselves 
as employees and owners of the business. We are manufacturing cast iron 
fittings for the supply of water and gas to the cities throughout the United 
States, thus serving public service corporations and municipalities. 

In carrying out this idea of service we have four groups interested: The 
workmen, the managers, the owners, and the public. Here again the erouping 
has been reduced by Mr. Eagan’s death in that the owners constitute the 
workers and managers. Mr. Eagan started on a premise that three principles 
were involved: These groups of people should share in the failure or success 
of the business; they should share in a knowledge of the company’s business ; 
they should share in the profits or losses. Those are three principles I think 
we can take without argument. 

Now to operate this thing in some definite form, he left it in control 
of a series of boards. The, employees of the plant annually elect ten men 
known as the Board of Operators. The heads of the four principal divisions 
of the business are known as the Board of Management, composed of the 
president, two vice-presidents and the treasurer. These two Boards, con- 
stituted of fourteen men, are the legal trustees of the common stock, and 
annually they meet as any other Board of Stoc sholders would meet in any 
corporation, and elect the Board of Directors. This Board of Directors, as 
any other Board in any corporation, elects officers too, and these officers are 
burdened with the responsibility of running our plant just as any foundry or 
manufacturing institution is run in your city. 

There are three practical expressions of Christianity that we are trying 
to apply in our business. You and I can understand that this idea of 
Christianity in business is so big that if we tried to express it all it would 
become hazy and indefinite. But three concrete results we set out as being 
definite. Christianity in business would mean a reasonable living wage to 
every workman; second, as far as possible, regular employment for each 
employee, and, third, the actual application of the teachings of Jesus Christ 


130 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


in all our dealings one with another, whether it is by the men in a department, 
between departments or between the management and the workman. 

Some people say, What do you do with the money if you make any? You 
will bear in mind that no money is paid outside of the organization to any- 
body except 6% on the preferred stock, which represents the actual money 
put into the plant. Therefore, the first demand on our earnings is 6% on 
the preferred stock. That must be paid. It is cumulative. Second, reserves 
must be set up to take care of our business in a bad year. That is regular in 
all business. So we set up reasonable reserves to protect our business in case 
of falling markets, unemployment, etc. 

The third claim is old age pension. The greatest fear in the mind of the 
working public today is: What is going to become of me when I get old? 
If you ask the question you will find it in your plant. The primary question 
in the workman’s mind is: What will become of me or my family when I 
am old? We have a pension fund now approaching $40,000 set aside to take 
care of workmen when too old to work. That is the third charge upon our 
earnings. 

Then, fourth, comes a living wage. These ten employees elected as a 
Board, meet, investigate and allow what is a living minimum wage in 
Birmingham. We pay that wage; then if there is any money left it becomes 
extra compensation, and the extra compensation is paid to all employees 
on an equal basis. The colored man pushing the wheelbarrow gets the same 
extra amount per day as the man superintending the plant. 

Many people today will say that is Bolshevistic; it is communistic. 
Well, it isn’t. If you buy a share of U. S. Steel Co. stock and John D. 
Rockefeller buys one, he gets the same dividend as you do. This year we 
are paying every man as we did last year, a dollar a day for every day 
he worked last year. If a man worked straight through three hundred 
days he gets $300. That is extra compensation being paid to him. The 
service to the public is to make a meritorious product. We must, also, 
serve our employees. I am interested in the Service Department. What we 
know as the Service Department takes in everything pertaining to goodwill, 
the relations between the employees and the management. In 1924 we spent 
$213,000 in maintaining the goodwill department. 

You say: Where did all that money go? We maintained a medical 
service that cost $36,000. We furnished a complete medical service to all 
employees and all of their families free of charge. We have a mutual 
benefit association that pays a man $8 a week for thirteen consecutive weeks 
if he is off sick, or prevented by injury from working. That cost last 
year some $20,000. At the same time the Y.M.C. A. which corresponds to 
the church, looks after the spiritual side of our relations in the plant. 
We run a restaurant serving 1,500 to 2,000 meals a day. We have a 
cooperative store where goods are sold at cost to all employees. Last year 
the business was $330,000. We maintain an active athletic course, a home 
building department which builds a home for any employee who can produce 
10% of the cost in cash. We recently completed an addition to our colored 
school which stands as an investment of $30,000—one of the finest school 
buildings in Birmingham. “We maintain educational classes constantly, day 
and night, at the plant for the men who are at work and who cannot attend 
the regular school. We run picture shows along with our educational 
campaign. We publish a plant paper known as the Acipco News, which 
comes out monthly. 

Some other things took part of this $213,000. For instance, every work- 
man gets a vacation of one week on full pay. We pay a service bonus of 
$32 a year for every year of continuous service. Last year I had the pleasure 
along with the rest of drawing my check of $32. Every employee who 
works every day the plant runs gets a turkey for his Christmas dinner. I 
have known a man who refused to be carried out of the plant on a stretcher 
when he was sick, because he might lose that turkey. 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 131 


Last year 387 men worked every day the plant ran. We have 1,500 
employees, about 1,100 colored, 400 white, that is including office, supervision 
and everything. Of the day wage men, 387 worked every day the plant ran. 
Out of that 1,500 about 1,250 are day wage workers. Out of the 1,250, 548 
lost less than five days in the year. They are not transient in our plant. 

I think labor turnover is a primary test of any plant. The average 
labor turnover in the Birmingham district would probably be 25%. At 
our plant in 1924 there was an average of 1.7%. In 1910, as far back as 
my records go, the average daily earning of each employee in the plant was 
$1.80. In 1924 the average earning was $5.11. The population of Birming- 
ham is about 200,000—120,000 white, 80,000 colored. I think that Acipco 
is the acme of that colored population, and I think you will conclude from 
that labor turnover that we are not far from right. 

Our medical service is complete in every detail. We maintain specialists 
on salary for all departments. We now have a baby specialist, holding a baby 
clinic twice a week. In 1920 the infant death rate in Birmingham was for 
whites 86.9, colored 191.5; in 1924, white 68.8, colored 80.9, a reduction 
of more than 60%. 


George W. Thompson (Akron, Ohio): I would like to ask the 
speaker if he has any figures on the death rate for his own par- 
ticular plant as compared with Birmingham. 

Mr. Barr: We have no figures; but it is less than 50% of the 
Birmingham death rate. 

Ernest T. Atwell (Philadelphia, Pa.): Are there any colored 
officers in this organization? : 

Mr. Barr: No. 

Philo C. Dix (Louisville, Ky.) : How are the managers chosen? 

Mr. Barr: It is rather hard to answer, except that the boards 
are already elected as it was a going business, and only in so far 
as officers have dropped out of it and the supervision has been changed, 
due to economic conditions, has there been any such question raised. 
The Board of Directors is elected annually and is automatically 
constituted by the existing officers, who can be removed. No Negroes 
are on the Board of Operatives. They have a Board of ten, elected 
as the Board of Managers of the Y. M. C. A., which has charge of 
the religious division of the plant, but every man has an equal vote 
in choosing these men, so the Negroes have two or three votes to 
the white man’s one. 

Mr. Diz: Is it understood that they are to continue white? 

Mr. Barr: It is understood that the Board of Operatives will be 
white men. 

Mr. Dix: Do the colored men have a vote? 

Mr. Barr: The colored men have a vote as well as the white men, 
but it is understood that they are to be white men. 

Mr. Dix: What is your idea of the democratic spirit affecting 
this that will remove the barrier? 

Mr. Barr: I have no idea but that it will, but at present most 


132 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


of our employees can neither read nor write, and you will all agree 
it will be unreasonable to place the management in a Board of 
Directors who can neither read nor write. 

Mr. Dix: That isn’t in the will? 

Mr. Barr: No. 

Mr. Dix: If a man drops out, does he take anything with him? 

Mr. Barr: If a man drops out it is left to his successor in the 
business, and that applies to the officers as well as to the workmen. 

HE. C. Wareing (Cincinnati, Ohio): I would like to raise the 
question how human nature stands up under this bountiful provision 
that is made to relieve it to such an extent that things become 
easier. What kind of reaction does human nature give to it? I 
raise this question because it is being raised now by such men as 
L. P. Jacks in his: Challenge of Life and Cultural Responsibility, 
in which he is condemning the careful provision that human nature 
shall not find it too easy, for, in doing so, it does not get along very 
well. 

Miss Van Kleeck: I am tempted to answer by saying that human 
nature here stays on the job so long that it misses only five days a 
year. 

Mr. Barr: I am very much afraid to say anything that might 
appear to be boasting. There has been too much said about Chris- 
tianity in industry. I would rather say, if you want to know the 
effects upon human nature, come down and see us. 

Mr. Wareing: Why don’t you teach those men to read and 
write? 

Mr. Barr: We are carrying on schools day and night and have 
a thirty-thousand dollar schoolhouse. 

Mr. Wareing: May I ask this question concerning my own 
thought: Is it true that at any place where the plan may be 
defeated by the weakness of human nature, that they could anticipate 
that and build up against it reinforcements so that the plant would 
not be betrayed by the weakness of human nature; is that correct? 

Mr. Barr: J can’t clearly understand what you mean. 

Mr. Warevng: I mean this: That every time any group of men 
make a provision such as you have done, to make it easier for us 
in our work-a-day world, there is an element in human nature that 
will take advantage of it and not rise to give the best service to 
the opportunity. Now, in putting that down upon a group of men, 
you always have to take into account that element in human nature. 
You have done that? 

Mr. Barr: Yes, sir. 

Mr. Wareing: Then, do I infer that, in doing this, you have 





INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 133 


sought to reinforce at the place where the weakness of human nature 
would defeat the plan? 

Mr. Barr: A great many people accuse us of doing things for 
them. But do not misunderstand me. I am doing it with them, 
and I am a higher officer elected by these employees to do this work 
for them. 

Mr. Wareing: That is what I have in mind in raising this 
question. 

Mr. Barr: Our plant operated for twelve years before it was 
turned over to us, and a great many of these things had been ironed 
out before it became our project. But Mr. Eagan said that if we 
failed it may be that in the failure we can advance the Kingdom 
of Jesus Christ, and He had to die and go into the grave to advance 
His own Kingdom. 

Chandler Owen (New York City): I was just about to ask you 
the question, can you tell me whether or not a number of these 
men who have been there a number of years are being promoted 
regularly and now are doing skilled labor and getting a first class 
price for their labor? 

Mr. Barr: I couldn’t give it as a matter of percentage but 
a large number of our colored employees have reached a scale of $7, 
$8 and $9 a day, which are fairly good wages. 

Mr. Owen: There is no segregation in the advancement ? 

Mr. Barr: No, sir, the white and colored mechanics of a like trade 
are not working in the same foundry; they are separated. 

Mr. Owen: You practice entire segregation in your plant? 

Mr. Barr: No, but in the classified trades they are separated. In 
our main manufacturing plant they work side by side on like jobs. 
So far as our plant is concerned, the race problem has never entered 
into it. 

Miss Belcher: I want to ask if a colored man can become a stock- 
holder in that company—TI mean, is stock sold at the present time? 

Mr. Barr: Preferred stock is sold. 

Miss Belcher: He could own preferred stock? 

Mr. Barr: Oh, yes, and a very large number of them do. But 
that has no voting power and has nothing to do with the manage- 
ment of the company. The common stock is held jointly by every 
employee, and the minute a man is hired he becomes a stockholder 
in the same sense I am. 

Miss Belcher: Is there any job in your plant that a well-trained, 
well-educated Negro could hold? You said the majority could not 
read or write. Is there any job there a well-educated man could 
hold? 


134 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Mr. Barr: Well, yes, the classification is largely controlled by 
the economic and developed condition of the South. 

Miss Belcher: Can employees be dismissed ? 

Mr. Barr: Certainly, any foreman can discharge any employee 
for insubordination or misdemeanor or anything of that kind. But 
he has the right of appeal to the Board of Operatives, and if 
they reverse his discharge it is brought to the management for final 
settlement. Hvery man has the right of appeal, but you cannot take 
the control of labor out of the hands of management and expect to 
get anywhere. 

Chairman: The time has about expired. We want to allow 
Miss Van Kleeck three minutes to close the discussion. 

Miss Van Kleeck: It has not been the aim of the Committee to 
have this a session in which questions would be answered or this 
problem solved. What we are trying to do is to get before you 
something of the complexity of the problem, to show you what one 
plant has been able to do; to consider what the labor movement 
is trying to achieve despite all the difficulties of adjustment; and 
to go away from this gathering with many questions in our minds, 
convinced that we have here a problem which we cannot solve in a 
session of a conference, but which demands thorough study in our 
various communities. As a means of studying these problems the 
great need of the interracial movement is demonstrated. By further- 
ing the organization of the interracial movement nationally and in 
states and in localities we shall put the white and the colored races 
in a position to study together the problem of industry, and to 
study it as a whole, with race relations as a part of that whole. 
Hence, what the Committee wishes to suggest is study, understand- 
ing, and particularly open-minded attention to the development of 
new experiments and new ideas. We are very grateful for the part 
you have all taken in this conference. 

Chairman: ,Just before I surrender the chair I want to make 
you a three-minute speech. I am going home today at three o’clock, 
and I am going home with these impressions. To me this has been 
a most remarkable gathering, remarkable in its purposes, remark- 
able in its perspective. Who could have anticipated a meeting of 
this kind twenty years ago? When we consider that we have had 
here a large number of young men and young women from the 
white schools of this country, north and south, and older men and 
older women of the two races, to come here and study the ques- 
tions in which we are all interested, it indicates to me that, after 
all, God is moving in this world for the betterment and for the uplift 
of all the people. 


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INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 135 


Personally, there are other questions which I wish you would 
study, but I know the time has not come for the study of all the 
questions in which the Negro personally is interested. This ques- 
tion of race prejudice is one of the most complex and one of the 
most difficult problems with which we have to deal. It is a question 
which time alone can solve. We all know that great movements move 
slowly, and time, which enters as a factor in the solution of all 
other problems, does enter the solution of those problems which God 
has to solve. God waited forty years to lead His people out of 
Egypt into the Land of Canaan. The race waited two hundred and 
fifty years before the Negro could be emancipated. 

The observation which I make here is this, and it is not a new 
observation: It is going to take years, many years, to solve the prob- 
lems which we are now studying. They will not be solved in my 
day, and, may I further add, they will not be solved in your day. 
You will never live to see the Negro given all the rights and privi- 
leges of this country which a white man enjoys. Personally, I 
never wished that I was a white man. I am well contented with 
my color. I can wash my hands when they are dirty; I can buy 
a new suit of clothes when I need one; I can wash my face when it 
is unclean; but I can’t change my color, and for that very reason 
we ought to have a movement of larger sympathy for the white man. 
I sympathize with him. I am sorry for him. I was once a slave. 
It is a mighty hard matter for him to look upon me as his equal. 
Religion does not solve all problems. I have discovered that and 
so have you. You remember that Peter—weak, vacillating, impul- 
sive—was the very same Peter after his conversion. He went from 
Jerusalem down to Antioch and was ashamed to let the Jews from 
Jerusalem see him mixing up with the Gentiles down at Antioch. 

Race prejudice is one of the worst perils we have to contend 
with, and, may I add in conclusion, there can be no peace for this 
country until prejudice is abolished. I am willing to work and to 
wait and see to the process of the education of these young men and 
these young women who are appearing in the white race to be our 
friends until those of our race who are coming on can enter into a 
larger day and into a larger field, which is now our purpose. 


(Moved and unanimously adopted that Bishop Phillips and Miss 
Van Kleeck and her Committee be extended a vote of thanks for 
the efficient way in which they have carried out the program this 
morning.) 


136 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


SUMMARY OF THE DISCUSSION ON 
VII. INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS * 


Question for discussion was, How can progress be made in improving the 
economic status of Negroes? It was agreed that certain ideas were accepted 
and needed no discussion, such as (1) Economic status is basic factor in 
problems of social and living conditions; (2) Every human being should have 
opportunity to do work requiring his best capacity; (3) Colored workers 
cannot progress in industry without regard to the progress of labor generally. 

Reports from various communities showed differences in different places. 
Migration of skilled Negroes from South has opened up new industrial 
opportunities. In some industries and some cities colored workers receive 
less pay than white for the same work; elsewhere their pay is equal. War 
conditions gave the Negroes their first opportunity in industry. Now 
restriction of immigration continues the tendency and as percentage of 
foreign-born decreases, proportions of Negroes increase. Two obstacles must 
be overcome: Inertia of white employer and indifference or prejudice of white 
employes. Evidence of success and efficiency elsewhere is the best means of 
persuading employers to take on Negroes. Some criticisms of colored workers 
as transient, undependable workers was traced to wholesale methods of recruit- 
ing in the South by agents of northern mills and to lack of home ties in the 
North. Colored workers employed in personnel departments of plants can 
facilitate adjustments of members of their race. 

Instances were given of refusal of labor unions to admit Negroes to 
membership or of discrimination against them in employment. In trade 
unions to which they have been admitted they have been loyal members. It 
was declared that the American Federation of Labor was eager to organize 
colored workers. The prejudice of trade unionists was explained as due to 
the fact that Negroes have been willing to accept less wages than the white 
man. Some employers have let it be known that they would give oppor- 
tunities to Negroes provided they refrained from joining unions, and leaders 
of the colored race, in their desire to open up industrial opportunities, have 
been willing to discourage colored workers from joining. 

Hope for the future lies in development of scientific personnel work which 
tends to eliminate prejudice; and in some form of democracy in industry 
which ‘gives the workers a share in determining conditions of work. It was 
recommended that study groups be formed to secure information about indus- 
trial relations in their bearing upon local conditions and that interracial 
committees include representatives of trade unions and of management, par- 
ticularly personnel workers who are best informed about problems of 
employment. 


* Prepared by Miss Mary Van Kleeck, Director, Dept. of Industrial Studies, 
Russell Sage Foundation, New York. 











CuaptTer VIII 
THE COURTS AND RACE RELATIONS * 


Chairman: We are a little late, yet by the kind of team work 
we have done so splendidly during the session past, we can, I think, 
overtake the time we have lost. The topic is the Courts and Race Re- 
lations. Dr. Cox, chairman of the Discussion Committee, is to open 
the subject. 

Dr. Gilbert S. Cox (Columbus, Ohio): All of you will recognize 
this topic for discussion as falling in a little different category and 
fraught with more dangers than was inherent in some of the topics 
that have been under discussion here. It would be very interest- 
ing if we had time to accumulate more of the facts upon which we 
might base our discussion, but I feel that we had better take for 
granted that there are a good many difficulties, some discrimina- 
tions and other things which might be recited here with great in- 
terest to all of us in the various processes of law. 

May I suggest two or three things: For instance, what is being 
done in your communities about furnishing legal aid to those who 
ought to have it? What is being done in your communities about 
our juvenile courts and probation officers and the various assign- 
ments of youth? What is being done in your communities about 
the migratory groups? ‘These three questions I think will cover 
the more pertinent practical points that we have time for, as you 
realize. 

Being a Methodist it is\ perfectly natural for me to start the 
meeting by a word myself. In Columbus we called the chief of police 
into council not long ago and inquired of him the main sources 
of crime. After a discussion, it was discovered that the largest 
amount of crime and the most trouble that come to the court, come 
from the strangers in our midst or the migratory groups of people 
who are just passing through. After we discovered that fact we 
addressed ourselves to what we could do about it. After a good 
many conferences with the chief and mayor and other officers of the 
city, we had appointed a colored officer, one of the most splendid, 
and best educated and representative officers on our police force, a 


*Friday 2:00 p.m. March 27; President Gilbert H. Jones, Wilberforce Uni- 
versity, presiding. 
137 


138 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


man who is to be assigned to our own Interracial Committee, and 
work under our direction and suggestion with this particular group 
from which the greatest amount of crime comes. He will work 
not as a detective or police officer, but as a friend and a brother and 
an instructor to those who come among us who are not yet accustomed 
to our ways. We look with great hope on that movement and feel 
that our chief of police has gone all the way, at least as far as 
this particular item is concerned, in furnishing us with this par- 
ticular officer. It is just such things as that, it seems to me, we 
need to know about. For that reason a composite picture of the 
method being pursued will be very valuable. 

Chawrman: The floor is open to anyone who wishes to discuss 
the matter. I believe they agreed to limit the speakers to three 
minutes. 


NEGROES FORM LARGE PROPORTION OF PRISON INMATES 


Mr. Plaskett: I am one of the officers of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Christian Aid Society, composed of white people and 
one Negro, and I asked, before coming here, for a statement from 
the warden, that 1 might present accurate information as to one 
particular penitentiary. Although I did not get the information 
in time, I have here a statement from a practicing attorney in New 
Jersey, the facts of which I will just give to the Conference. The 
New Jersey State Prison has about 1,000 inmates, 400 of which are 
Negroes; the Jamesburg State Reform School, about 600 inmates, 
60 of whom are colored; Reformatory at Rahway, 500 inmates, 75 
colored; Caldwell, Essex County Penitentiary, 300 inmates, 125 
colored; Clinton Reform School for Women, 300 inmates, 100 col- 
ored; State Home for Girls, Trenton, inmates 200, colored 60. 

These figures have been gathered hastily, and the authority for 
them is Rev. Van Pelt, our colored state chaplain, taken not from 
any data that he has at hand but taken from what he can tell off- 
hand. These figures might be considered approximate. Neverthe- 
less, the increase in inmates for the past few years has been every 
bit of 50 per cent. One of the outstanding features of the whole situa- 
tion is the apparent ignorance of the migrants from the South of the 
laws of the land, and especially so with reference to the carrying 
and invariable use of knives, pistols, and dangerous weapons of 
various kind. You will note that the smallest percentage of in- 
mates in any of the institutions above named is at Jamesburg: 
Reform School for Boys where the youth of our state are incarcerated 
and there we find out of 600 inmates there are only sixty colored. 


a ON es —= 





THE COURTS AND RACE RELATIONS 139 


It is my opinion that the crime is due to the migrants and their 
ignorance to a great extent. For these sixty colored boys, this 10 
per cent at the Reform School at Jamesburg, they might be said to 
be boys born in Jersey and raised there. 

The Negroes’ status in the courts of New Jersey is very good. 
I might explain from a legal standpoint that in my opinion there 
is no prejudice shown because of his ignorance. A notable instance 
thereof is that immediately upon the arrest of a white person they 
are asked to make a statement. They readily, from the standpoint 
of their intelligence, refuse until they have consulted counsel, the 
right which belongs to every citizen. The Negro immediately upon 
his arrest becomes friendly with the officer making the arrest, 
in the greater number of instances, jovial, and as a result thereof 
immediately opens his heart, mind and soul, and pours out a full 
statement which is readily reduced to writing, and thus becomes a 
piece of evidence against him. My experience of five years has 
taught me that 90 per cent of the arrests made by officers of the 
law of Negroes are invariably those of colored persons who are 
guilty—that is to say, I do not feel that arrests are made in New 
Jersey, that is, that part of New Jersey which I have worked, merely 
because a man is colored. And I might add also we have a very 
good probation system and we have the various church organiza- 
tions, and women workers in connection with the probation officers. 

Mr. Greene: I think some of the statements made by the preced- 
ing speaker are a picture of the situation we have in our city. I 
had occasion to go to the Morals Court in Pittsburgh, and out of 
nineteen people twelve of them were colored. I went from there 
to the grand jury room, and out of fifty cases thirty-five of them were 
colored. ‘That led me to believe that the number of my folk in 
proportion to the population is tremendously top heavy so far as 
criminals in Pittsburg are concerned. 

Now, as to arrests made there is practically no difference in the 
arrests, but we do find a difference when sending these folk to jail 
or prison. Colored folk, due to some reason, because they are not 
familiar with the laws and various other things, usually commit 
themselves or incriminate themselves before they have a chance for 
trial. I was on the jury about the last two weeks in January, and 
two-thirds of the cases in which our folks were involved were cases 
that had been persuaded to plead guilty and, of course, they were 
the cases that were decided by the judge who sentenced them. Now, 
we feel that education is the thing that is going to help in that 
difficulty. We have particularly in the Morals Court a woman who 
has done some very remarkable work in instructing those people 


140 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


about what to do. Then she helps the judge, too, in the Morals 
Court, interpreting some of the conditions my folk are up against. 
Something about the boys’ Y. M. C. A. work, those who have been 
doing that work, have been very successful in finding big brothers, 
and in a way the situation is improving. It can only be done 
through education. 


THE RELATION OF NEGROES TO THE COURTS 


Mrs. Lawson: I wonder if Chicago might tell something of the 
problems we are having in our court situation there, through our 
representative who is here from the Chicago Defender, and who has 
been a court worker twelve or fifteen years; I suggest Mrs. Speedy, 
of the Chicago Defender, who might tell us something about our 
courts. 

Mrs. Nettve Speedy (Chicago, Ill.) : I can speak for Chicago alone, 
as I have had fourteen years’ experience in Chicago courts. I am 
very proud to say in every court in Chicago we have colored rep- 
resentatives. In the municipal court we have a judge, and in the 
United States courts we have a United States attorney; we have 
five assistant prosecutors and six assistants to the Corporation Coun- 
sel. We have four colored coroners, one member in the state sen- 
ate and five in the house and a deputy sheriff. We have workers 
in the municipal and juvenile courts. We have one woman who has 
been in the juvenile court seven years, and every court officer has to 
report to her as the head clerk. We have attorneys of our race and 
representatives on the police force. 

Mr. Atwell: J have had some experience with the criminal after 
he has been through the courts, as a member of the board of 
trustees of the Eastern State Penitentiary. Probably the only 
colored member of the trustees on the parole board that I know of 
in America. My experience has been that there are several ques- 
tions involved in the matter of treatment in the courts. One is the 
economic question, the question of having enough money to defend 
one’s self. In most legal aid societies in the various cities (and I think 
that is a work for which the interracial committees locally can be of 
great assistance) there has not been developed enough interest for the 
protection of the Negro. That is probably true of a great many 
of our organizations where we think in terms of white people. So 
I would suggest a practical way to make a contribution in this 
direction, would be to organize some sort of a committee in connec- 
tion with your interracial committee that will seek to discover how 


THE COURTS AND RACE RELATIONS 141 


we can assist and help not only the criminal as he reaches the court, 
but in his rehabilitation. 

Woodford S. Smith (Springfield, Ohio): We have one bailiff 
in the courts of Springfield, and as far as justice is concerned we 
have no complaints; one group is treated the same as another. 

Rev. W. C. Orton (Louisville, Ky.): We have had most of the 
reports from the North. We have the pendulum swinging too far 
one way or the other. The courts are either too severe or too lenient 
with our colored folk. By investigation in one police court I find 
that last year one-third of the Negroes who were arrested gave a 
bond and never came back. Of seventy-five who were arrested at a 
little entertainment one night where they were having a little jollifica- 
tion all of them put up five dollars each and the money was re- 
tained. They simply forfeit the bond and go out and do something 
else. 


ATTENTION OF INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE NEEDED IN COURTS 


Mr. Frazer: It seems to me every one in this room is aware 
that the Negro does not get anything resembling justice in the South. 
I take it we are met here to see how we can bring about justice for 
the Negro. The main question here is this, how can we get white 
people and colored people to work together to see that the Negro 
gets justice? If I was arrested in the South I would put up some 
money and not go back and that would not be a racial characteristic 
but the easiest way out of the situation. 

As a concrete suggestion, I wonder if it would be possible for 
these interracial committees in the South as they develop to find, for 
instance, some strong legal mind who could be called upon in the 
situation. Suppose I should get arrested in Atlanta—and really 
I am serious about all this—I would like to be able to call upon 
somebody whose opinion in the court would influence them, because 
a white friend of mine told me to keep as far from the courts as 
possible. What are we doing to develop sentiment in these com- 
- munities in behalf of democratic, legal justice. 

Dr. C. V. Roman (Nashville, Tenn.): A case came to my mind 
in answer to what Mr. Frazier said. One of the simplest ways to 
help justice is for those who are not accused—those who are con- 
sidered the prosperous and favored ones—to take interest in the 
court. We had a club in Nashville—a club of college men—and had 
the city judge address that club and he made an impressive address 
and invited us to come down and see how justice was done in his 
court. 

One day, two years after that, an ordinary well dressed, well 


142 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


behaved but ignorant girl went to get on a street car and passed 
to a seat in front of a white man and got in trouble and they 
arrested her for passing in front contrary to our Jim Crow street- 
car law. She called her brother to let him know what it was and 
they arrested him. There happened to be somebody in there that 
knew her that put up the bond. The trial was set for the next 
day and I heard of it quite accidentally. I did not want to be 
noted, but I went to the court, the first time I had ever been 
in a police court. But the Judge evidently was sizing me up; he 
came and said “Doctor, how are you?’ I said, “I was a long 
time accepting your invitation, Judge, but I thought I would come 
down and see how you administer justice.” I said not a word about 
the girl! There was a hurried conference and this case was called 
and nobody was there to prosecute. The policeman was there, I 
found out afterwards, and the man was standing outside, but no one 
prosecuted. In three minutes the case was dismissed and the for- 
feit returned, just by my presence there, without saying a word. I 
did not know the accused party by name. That’s the answer, Mr. 
Frazier. If you can get the well-to-do to take an interest; the 
best people in the world will work better when they know they 
are being checked up. | 

Bishop C. H. Phillips (Cleveland, Ohio): Just a word. It has 
been my observation that there is nothing the colored man wants 
more today than justice. It has been my observation in our courts 
in the South. I lived in the South a number of years; although I 
live in Cleveland now, I am a southern man and will die true to 
that section, and I did not leave it on account of bad treatment. 
But here is the trouble, Mr. Chairman. A colored man can get 
justice in the South if his interests do not conflict with the interest 
of the white man. Now, when the white man’s interests are 
really against his, the outlook for the Negro is very doubtful. 
The fact of it is, two-thirds of our race problem is involved in 
that little word, justice. When the Negro gets justice, there’s 
nothing else for him to get; everything else will dissolve. How to 
remedy the conditions that exist; that is one of the problems which 
confronts this body and it is a problem which confronts this country. 
All the Negro wants is simple, elementary justice. 

Miss Howell: I want to suggest something that is probably out 
of order at this time. It is a slightly different angle of the 
racial justice question. We had one of the most flagrant cases of 
injustice in St. Louis, where a wealthy Tennessee white man shot 
and killed a Negro porter on a Pullman car in a dispute with the 
Pullman conductor. He did not deny the killing; the man did not 





THE COURTS AND RACE RELATIONS 143 


deny he was drunk. He did not have his ticket and the dispute 
was about that. The whole trial was simply a play in racial preju- 
dice, but the twelve jurymen went out and acquitted him, although 
there was no denial that he was guilty. He was found to be jus- 
tified because the porter—one of the men with whom he was having 
the dispute—was said to be a “fresh nigger.” The newspapers 
took that up and treated it fairly as a clear injustice. There was 
not really a good prosecution. As I see it, the existence of that 
race prejudice in a community makes such a thing possible and our 
interracial committee cannot do anything about this case. 

Dr. Cox: Nobody will be shut off in a discussion after the 
address, so we will have the address now and continue the discus- 
sion afterward. We shall have the pleasure of listening to Judge 
John F. Hager of Ashland, Ky., on Courts and Race Relations. 

Judge Hager then spoke in part as follows: 


I have no call on your program to discuss the minor and infinitely varied 
details of this important question, and pass them by after expressing the 
belief and hope that results of sobriety of action, tolerance of spirit and 
charity of opinion will have their perfect work in solving a problem which, 
to say the least, may be regarded as highly complex in nature. 

Questions affected by racial antipathies are serious and complicated. 
I may be charged with undue optimism, yet when I see so many good 
people of the Southland honestly, without prejudice and animated by a 
sincere desire that these problems may be solved with full justice to our 
brother in black, like Paul of olden time, I thank God and take courage. 

It is coming to be widely realized that a Constitution-loving people must 
give, not merely concede, the abstract rights of the Negro, but his actual 
constitutional rights as well. Good people are widely challenging trans- 
gressions of a recent amendment to our Constitution as subversive of law 
and order. I challenge every transgression of constitutional right, and say 
that a denial thereof cannot be suffered without ultimate and grievous hurt 
to the Constitution itself, and a grave injury to the citizen, be he white or 
black. Constitutional rights and privileges of every citizen being sacred, 
must be sacredly upheld. Upon mo other postulate can the continued exist- 
ence of a free republic be predicated... . 

It is not relevant in the scope of my address to discuss whether or not 
the amendments should have been adopted, as, whether wisely or not, by the 
14th and 15th Amendments, the Negro has, equally with every white citizen, 
every right and privilege secured to any other. As honest and Constitution- 
loving people we must acknowledge these rights to be as sacred, and to be as 
sacredly guarded, as similar rights of the whites. 

Basing my statement upon the eternal foundation of history, precedent 
and universal experience, questions involved in giving them full effect 
cannot be settled until settled rightfully. The sense of eternal justice in 
the human heart decreed that slavery was wrong. It was right according 
to the letter of the law. It was supported by the most brilliantly equipped 
statesmen of the world. It had the approving sanction of the pulpits and 
the highest courts. Its sanctity was settled at the birth of the states, and. 
by a later compromise was sealed by House and Senate. By friend and foe 
it was settled; by every means known to human relationship it was settled; 
but under the eternal and unchangeable principles of human right it was 
not settled. This brief allusion illustrates the question, and I accentuate 


144 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


in saying that no question is finally settled until sealed in the forum of 
eternal justice, for— 


“Since God is God, and right is right, 
Right in the end shall win; 

To doubt would be disloyalty, 

To falter would be sin.” 


The time calls for plainness of speech, and that men stand before the 
world and not swerve in duty from the open light of discussion. . . . Let 
every man, black or white, know that if he complies with the law, whose 
equal and fair provisions compel him to be a better citizen of his country, 
he may attain to this status. Let good people everywhere resolve to over- 
come the difficulties along the way, and endeavor to accomplish an imme- 
diate and radical cure of this source of public ills. 

Every argument of memory and experience teaches that the difficulties 
ahead are immensely helped in the direction of a more helpful, tolerant and 
broader liberty for the Negro. There has been no backward movement; 
it has been forward all the time. In courthouse, legislative halls, marts of 
business, in mining and industrial plants, I have noted, as every one must 
note, the unconscious change of sentiment in the direction of liberality toward 
the Negro throughout the South. I remember when the Negro’s oath was 
not taken. Today an intelligent Negro on the witness stand is accepted 
without question. If he has been an honest, man, no difference is discovered 
between him and a white man of equal character, unless it be a strong 
desire everywhere manifested to emphasize, on the part of the whites, a 
demonstration of special approval in the case of the colored man of 
character. 

In business life his every step has encountered a protest, but the Negro 
has made his place in the march of affairs, and it is a cause of great felicita- 
tion that his feet are on the ascending steps of good citizenship. According 
to my observation, he is improving in character, in education, in morals, in 
material prosperity and in self-respect. Churches in which there 1s con- 
stantly increasing membership; homes where under their own vine and 
fig trees plenty and sweet content are to be found in increasing numbers, 
with thousands of intelligent students crowding the halls of learning where 
they find welcome, and on leaving, are filling every situation open to them 
with credit and character. These are among the harbingers foretelling the 
fruition of the hopes we now indulge concerning the future relations of 
whites and Negroes. It is creditable to the Negro to contrast his present 
condition with the emancipated white serf of Russia, and find that in every 
element of an enlightened citizenship the Negro has surpassed him. 

Freedom and equality of justice are the basic conceptions of American 
law. Particular emphasis is accorded these fundamental principles in the 
14th and other amendments. Equality before the law is the most important 
of all rights, because upon this principle the rights of life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness wholly depend. It is the cornerstone of our govern- 
ment—of laws and not of men... . 

It is not enough, however, that the laws have provided for political and 
economic equality. However fair in and of itself, law is impotent to safe- 
guard the rights of the citizen unless the administration of justice is in high 
sense impartial. Unless and until it is possible for the humblest to invoke 
the protection of the law for invasion of his free and equal rights, they 
vanish into nothingness. To take from the Negro a part of the burden which 
necessarily falls on him because either of poverty or race, and to see that 
he obtains in every proper case his legal rights, is coming to be realized 
as a part of the duty of every worthy man or woman. The existence of free 
government depends on making justice so impartial and effective that all 
men may have reason to believe in and rely upon the fairness and impartiality 
of its administration. I have faith in believing that denial of justice to the 
Negro, where it exists, and removal of the growing belief that justice is 





THE COURTS AND RACE RELATIONS 145 


denied them, can be prevented, and that it can be made clear to them and 
to every person, no matter how humble, that justice is accessible and attain- 
able. May God speed the day when this prospect, dreamed of by the philoso- 
pher, the aim of the law-giver, the endeavor of the judge, and the ultimate 
test of every government and every civilization is the passionate desire of the 
human soul in its demand for equal and exact justice—a demand which has 
existed since man has wronged his fellowman: May this desire culminate 
in an era wherein the denial of justice on account of poverty or race shall 
forever be made impossible in free America... . 

I do not despair that the people of the South, in even larger degree than 
those of the North, but together, will work out to its finality all these 
vexing problems, in love and in justice, to the ultimate glory of our civiliza- 
tion. That will leave to our children’s children the priceless illustration of a 
people forgetting the sorrows and hatreds of other days, doing equal justice 
to every man of every color and condition, and in that measure answering 
Edmund Burke’s superlative tribute to its meaning: 


“There is one thing, and one thing only, which defies all mutation—that which 
existed before the world, and will survive the fabric of the world itself. I mean 
justice—that justice which, emanating from the Divinity, has a place in the 
breast of every one of us, given us for our guide with regard to ourselves and 
with regard to others, and which will stand after this globe is burned to ashes, 
our advocate or our accuser before the great Judge, when He comes to call upon 
us for the tenor of a well-spent life.” 


REPORT OF DISCUSSION COMMITTEE 


Chairman: The Discussion Committee on Courts will now report. 

Dr. Cox: We are handicapped by not having met before the 
Conference and the time since the discussion has been brief. All 
we have tried to do is to gather up some recommendations, the re- 
sult of our conferences here. We only put down three or four things 
in the way of recommendation : 


1. We look with great concern upon any injustice based upon race dis- 
criminations which occurs in our courts at the arrest or during the trial or 
imprisonment of the Negro, and ‘we call upon the Interracial Commission 
to study the cause of crime and to form plans for the close codperation with 
our juvenile courts, especially in the matter of paroles and the furnishing 
of means for legal advice wherever it is possible. 

2. We commend, also, an educational program to be carried on by the 
various churches and so¢ial agencies among the migrants, for the prevention 
of misunderstandings, and the infraction of the law. 

3. Where Negroes do not have the right of franchise, we commend to 
the interracial committees the creation of public opinion for that right, and 
in encouraging the placing of Negroes upon juries where any large number 
of their race is found. 

4. We urge the appointment of Negro police and probation officers, also, 
where there is any large number of the race. 


Rev. Chas. W. Burton of Chicago is responsible for one of these 
planks in this platform, and I will give him an opportunity to state 
what he has in mind. 


146 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


RELATION OF NEGRO TO THE BALLOT AND THE COURTS 


Dr. Burton: The recommendation I am responsible for is the 
one which relates to giving the Negro the ballot. You heard Mrs. 
Speedy enumerate the various court positions that Negroes hold 
in Chicago. There is a very definite reason for this and that reason 
is that the Negroes are so placed that they can say whether or not 
a certain judge will be reélected or not or elected for the first time. 
It seems to me that is the fundamental thing of this question of 
injustice in our courts, whether they be in the South or North. The 
Negro should be given, ultimately, the right of franchise as a fac- 
tor and weapon that he can successfully use for his own protec- 
tion. So I feel the least this Conference can do—this National 
Interracial Conference—would be to go on record as approving and 
requesting the local interracial committees everywhere, to create a 
public sentiment in favor of giving the Negro his constitutional right 
wherever it is denied him. I believe the fair-minded men and women, 
whether they be Christians or Jews, will support such a resolution. 

Dr. Coz: Mr. Dabney, who filled a place on this Committee, 
will also speak about another portion of this report. 

W. P. Dabney (Cincinnati, Ohio): I am _ responsible, pri- 
marily, for the brief proposal in regard to the police. A political 
experience of twenty-five years had taught me the major portions 
of the arrests occur simply through the police, and they are largely 
influenced, in a great majority of instances, by the prejudice they 
feel. I have seen hundreds and hundreds of cases where the police 
would make arrests arbitrarily of colored people, letting white peo- 
ple guilty of the same offense go on unless forced to arrest them. 
Every one who has had public experience knows that is true. It 
is one of the causes of the great number of colored people arrested. 
The remedy I suggest is that the interracial committees make it a 
business to try and educate the sense of right and justice on the 
police force and that will benefit us immensely. 

Dr, Cox: One remark should be made on that. We want to un- 
cover any facts. Many have remarked about the larger proportion 
of the colored people in prisons. Here is a fact that was brought 
out by a little investigation I made the other day at the Ohio State 
Penitentiary, and a point that helps a little. I said, “How do 
you account for this?’ ‘The warden said, “Here is one way we 
account for so many being here. In the first place, the colored 
man so often receives a much longer sentence for the same crime 
than the white man, so it seems, therefore, there are more here. 
But,” he said, “they simply stay longer.” 


THE COURTS AND RACE RELATIONS 147 


And then there is the second item about their staying longer which 
also ought to be brought to mind. That is, whereas for white 
prisoners there are always organizations or individuals or officials 
working for their release, and many of them are released, the other 
crowd of prisoners are left to serve their full time, so statistics like 
that are rather dangerous; when you go into a prison and count 
them up that does not always mean what it says. Somebody said 
there are several kinds of liars, statistical liars being among them. 

Attorney Alexander H. Martin (Cleveland, Ohio): May I say 
a word? What I want to suggest is, those who have discussed this 
most important subject seem to think that the only justice we ought 
to concern ourselves about is that which relates to criminal things. 
When we listen to remarks such as made by Bishop Phillips that 
in the southland the colored man is practically denied justice, it 
seems we have not handled this proposition at all; and even this 
Conference is inclined to accept the situation, to take it for granted, 
and not really rise to the occasion to put on an inquiry to see if it 
can be remedied. 

As a matter of fact, Congress started the movement after the 
Civil War to rehabilitate the colored man, so that for him this nation 
could be said to have for its purpose the establishment of justice. 
We have not it in sight even, with ten millions of blacks who are 
citizens. It seems to me we have not attained that standard of ex- 
cellence in considering this subject. Why not? I would rather see, 
Mr. Chairman, this matter be referred for further consideration, 
when we can bring forth a report or set of suggestions that will 
get down under the proposition to the root of the matter. 

Now, as a matter of fact, where does the Negro stand if he can- 
not claim the protection of the courts? He is supposed to have it 
in most states of the Union and this Conference ought to go on 
record in a different fashion with reference to police procedure or 
the ballot. It is the law he should have the ballot. I want to get 
down to the foundation of these questions and bring forth some- 
thing for thought that will cause, as the months go by, a revulsion 
from the present unhappy condition, remembering, as was well said 
last night, if ten millions are denied justice there is no justice for 
anybody. 

S. Joe Brown: This Committee has made some very definite 
recommendations, and I feel the courtesy is due them that we ap- 
prove those recommendations, and I make such a motion. 

Chairman: Motion is made and seconded that the recommenda- 
tions of the Committee be approved. Are you ready for the question? 


148 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Bishop W. J. Walls (Charlotte, N. C.): I have an idea that the 
Committee should put its statements in more definite form. I am 
rather of the opinion of Mr. Martin with reference, for instance, 
to the police and service on juries. Those things are not amplified 
enough. ‘They are not made measures of methods and suggestions 
by which the things could be accomplished. I think the Committee 
should be given opportunity at the next session to set itself some 
definite resolutions, insisting upon carrying out the law in these 
matters, and particularly urging the Negro to do his part, and a great 
deal he can do. He can be made alive to his responsibility in help- 
ing bring these things to pass—not by entering politics, but by 
doing his share in education and carrying his responsibility. I would 
like to amend the motion that the Committee be given a chance to 
work this out. 

Chairman: The amendment is made; do I hear a second? 

A Votce: We might ask, Mr. Chairman, if they have time to meet 
and make more specific suggestions. I second the amendment. 

Dr, Cox: I would like to say, as far as this Committee is con- 
cerned, that we are through. If you want something else, we are 
perfectly willing to give it to you. We stated, in so many words, 
that we looked with grave concern on any injustice anywhere, in 
any court, to any arrest or any imprisonment passed on any racial 
discrimination. I do not know how we could say it in English any 
plainer. If you want it said plainer, as far as I am concerned as 
Chairman of the Committee, I am willing that someone else should, 
but I cannot do it any better than that. 

Bishop Walls: I will withdraw the amendment and that will 
get us out of this difficulty. 

Chairman: The motion is to approve the recommendation of the 
Committee. Any further discussion? 

(Question was called for, and the motion was put to vote and 
carried. ) 

Chairman: That closes the report of the Committee. We shall 
now have to close this topic and turn the Conference to the question: 
Schools and Colleges and Race Relations. 


SUMMARY OF THE DISCUSSION ON 
VIIT. COURTS AND RACE RELATIONS * 


A. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES 
1. In most places the Negro does not receive full justice in the white 
court; especially in the South. 


* Prepared by Professor Earle Edward Eubank, Department of Sociology, Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati. 





oe oo po 


THE COURTS AND RACE RELATIONS 149 


Ignorance and low economic condition give him a criminal ratio out of 
proportion to his numbers. 

Longer prison sentences gives him a disproportionate share of the 
prison population. 

Legal aid societies tend to favor whites. 

Difficulty in getting bail and defense funds. 


B. EvIDENCE OF PROGRESS 


tly 
2. 


Negro policemen in various cities, especially in Columbus, where one is 
appointed in friendly aid and counsel to the Negro. 

Negro representation at law increasing. For example, in Chicago: A 
Negro representative in every court, a Federal Attorney, five assistant 
prosecutors, six assistant corporation counsels, one state senator, 
five state representatives, one deputy sheriff, chief clerk of Juvenile 
Court, ete. 


CHaptEer IX 
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND RACE RELATIONS * 


Chairman: I believe, my friends, we are ready now to go ahead 
with our program. We have now the topic: Schools and Colleges 
and Race Relations, with Professor Harle E. Eubank, Professor of 
Sociology, University of Cincinnati, as chairman of the Discussion 
Committee. 

Professor Earle HE. Eubank (Cincinnati, O.): The Discussion 
Committee, in arranging the plans for this presentation, has felt there 
were four natural divisions of the question, inasmuch as the topic 
has included Public Schools and Colleges. They are subdivided by 
the fact that we have two different policies in regard to each of 
these, the South having the policy of separate schools and the North 
the policy of students in mixed schools; so there are four separate 
divisions of the subject. 

I shall ask one person to present the questions that seemed to 
the Committee to be of major importance among the many that 
could have been presented, if there had been time. The idea is 
that in three-minute brief statements from the floor the leading 
questions, as the Committee sees them, will be presented to the Con- 
ference and then in whatever time we have we would like to have 
the Conference address itself to one or the other of those questions. 
We shall ask that your discussion be just as direct as possible. The 
first of the four divisions is that of the public schools as they are 
found in sections of the country where there is a separation of 
the two races. Dr. James Bond of Louisville, Ky., will present 
the questions upon this. 


ADVANTAGES OR DISADVANTAGES OF SEPARATE SCHOOLS 


Dr. Bond: Mr. Chairman, I have not been asked to discuss the 
questions but to ask them. It is easier to ask questions than to 
answer. You are expected to answer. First, What are the advan- 
tages and disadvantages of separate schools? This Committee wants 
your judgment on this question. Are there any advantages in separate 


* Friday afternoon, 3:30, March 27; President Gilbert H. Jones, Wilberforce 
University, presiding. ‘ 7 
150 





SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND RACE RELATIONS 151 


public schools, and if so, what are they? Are there any disadvantages ? 
If so, what are they? 

The second question they vant you to answer is, What sugges- 
tions would you make as to the ways of maintaining the friendly at- 
titude in the school—interracial attitude—how in mixed schools or 
in separate schools would you maintain a friendly attitude, assuming 
that these interracial relations up to a certain point are friendly? 
Boys and girls while being educated are trained away from the 
friendly attitude. How can they be maintained from the cradle? 

Third question is, How to get a proper share of public school 
funds for colored people? How to obtain an equitable distribution 
of public funds? There is a long story about the use of public 
funds in many cities. Colored people are not getting their share 
everywhere; that is admitted. The Committee wants you to tell how 
we can go about it in Louisville or Atlanta, anywhere in the country 
where there is racial discrimination in the public school. How can 
we get an equitable division of the public funds? 


INFLUENCE OF MIXED SCHOOLS ON RACE RELATIONS 


Professor Eubank: In other parts of the United States in the 
public schools you are faced with a different situation—that of 
having white and Negro children together. There are certain ques- 
tions that apply to that field and these are to be presented by Pro- 
fessor H. T. Steeper, Principal of the West High School, Des Moines, 
Towa. 

Professor Steeper: As I see it, and I hope I am not entirely’ 
biased, the most hopeful sign of the future of American democracy 
rests with the American public school. I want to call attention of 
this Conference of men and women that we have had a fine exhibi- 
tion from the college people, and it is fine business. Those people 
are going to be the leaders tomorrow, but the folk they will lead are 
the little folk like those in my school, and you have to look to 
them if you get the thing over. 

First, what is the big contribution of the cosmopolitan American 
schools to the problem of race relations? I am glad, and I say it 
practically and sincerely, there happens to be at least one colored 
girl in the school where my little girls are going, because they are 
learning at first hand, very early, to adjust themselves. I want to 
tell you how, from the time my oldest girl was two or three years 
of age, she was trained. The first time she saw a colored person, 
that that person just happened to be a different color; that we 
had nothing to do with our selection of parents; that they were 


152 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


decent if they behaved. That is what ought to be taught in public 
schools. How can the schools help continue that friendly relation 
which is found in childhood, regardless of race? That is the same 
question asked before by Dr. Bond. It is quite important. I find 
in high school much more prejudice than I find down in the earlier 
grades. I do not notice that little boys and girls in the lower 
grades have much trouble in playing together. The only way we 
can get the true relationship between the two races is education in 
the home. 

The third question is, What must a school administration and 
teachers do to give to each individual equality of opportunity, regard- 
less of race? That is a question I would like to preach a whole 
sermon on. As a high school teacher of 16 years experience in three 
different states where I have always had colored and white people 
in my schools, it makes a great difference what the principal thinks 
about the whole administration of that school. What the superin- 
tendent of the school, high and elementary, needs is to have the right 
bias on this proposition. When does he get it? I got mine before 
I was five years old, from my mother and father. Mother taught 
me that beauty is as beauty does. And I have learned beauty is 
skin deep. I wish I had more time to talk about those things. 

I talked to Mr. Brown who is with me from our Interracial 
Commission in Des Moines. He happens to be a member of one of 
our fraternities. It has been worth a lot to me to work as chairman 
of the Interracial Commission in close contact with him. I am 
getting a liberal education. 


RACIAL CONTACTS AND THE SEPARATE COLLEGES 


Professor Eubank: Not separated from the problems of public 
schools, but with problems peculiar to themselves, are the colleges or 
institutions of higher education. We shall have questions on colleges 
that are separate, presented by Mr. Ackley of Vanderbilt University, 
Nashville, Tenn., representing the student inter-collegiate grades. 

Mr. Ackley: Students of the colleges want to make three state- 
ments in three sentences and ask three questions in three minutes. 
We have had some interesting experiences in interracial cooperation 
in the South; we have just started to go ahead—just scratching the 
surface. We do not feel we have done much so far. Students in 
colleges have some limitations which people of the interracial com- 
missions do not have. We are not business men or social service 
experts and are unacquainted to a large extent with the community 





SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND RACE RELATIONS 153 


in which we find ourselves in college. Please bear this in mind when 
you answer. 

The first question is: What special things should the college 
student in the South do in the college city, town or country where 
the college is located? Second: In what ways can interracial codper- 
ation be carried on between the white and colored students in the 
colleges? If we have forums, what do you think we ought to discuss 
and do? What shall white students in the South do when their 
college is not near a college of the other race? Third: What can 
the faculty and administration of the colleges do? Do you favor 
white administration of Negro colleges in the South? Should we 
have both white and Negro teachers for Negro colleges? Should we 
have curriculum courses in interracial relations? What official recog- 
nition should colleges give the interracial codperation in the South? 


WHITE AND NEGRO STUDENTS IN THE SAME COLLEGES 


Professor Eubank: The next division covers institutions where 
white and colored students are on the same campus. This will be 
presented by Miss Blanche Dix, Northwestern University, Evanston, 
Ill. 

Miss Dix: Before I ask my questions, I should lke to be sure 
you have a background of the mixed colleges and universities. On 
our campus we have a large number of white students who are 
indifferent to the race problem. Then we have a small crowd, friendly 
to the Negro and race problems, and a small crowd positively hostile 
to the Negro and mutual difficulties. Then we have a group that 
varies—a group of Negroes, more or less segregated—not by law 
but by common consent. Out of these conditions, we find there are 
some problems about which we should like to ask you. We believe 
the plan of the university is good; we believe that, having cooperative 
education, we can go to school and learn. We have to learn from 
each other, not only what is in the schools but through outside 
activities. 

One of the questions is, How can we get the Negro student to be 
a full part of the institutions? In most of the institutions the 
Negro students do not participate in extra-class activities, especially 
in colleges. We would like to know how to go about getting an 
active part, in class day sports, athletics and so on. Second: How 
can we get the white students to have a constructive attitude toward 
the race problem? Many of them pay no attention to that when 
it comes to a showdown. We would like to know if you can tell 
us how we should go ahead on that. 


154 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Third: . How can we get the northern students and faculty to get 
away from what we conceive to be the southern attitude? We find 
in many universities the same reason given for not permitting us to 
live in the dormitories, that the southern students will not like it. 
That is not always true. I know of a Negro girl who wanted to 
swim in the pool, and two of the white girls objected and the reason 
they gave for objecting was that a southern girl was there and she 
would not like it, and we turned to the girl, who was a Mississippi 
girl, and asked her about it. She said, “If the girls do not want 
to swim in the pool with the Negro, let them go to the South.” And 
that was a southern girl who spoke. So we want you to tell us 
how we can get the northern students and northern faculty to work 
it out in their own way. 

Professor Kubank: This is something for the next National 
Conference. It will be impossible in one afternoon to have a dis- 
cussion of all the topics that have been raised in this concrete way 
by the young people who are face to face with them. I would like 
to have you bring in brief sentences or statements, whatever you 


have to say along the lines of any of the questions that have been. 


raised. You might indicate which of them you select. 

Dr. Roman: In answer to Mr. Ackley’s “What do we expect 
students to be,” I want to give one sentence in answer. Get your 
heart right, keep your mind open and gather facts for yourself and 
not be bound by tradition. 

Mr. Mount (Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio): In regard 
to the matter of converting college officials, that is one of great interest 
to the students of Ohio State. We had an embarrassing situation 
a couple of years ago. Ohio State is a state institution and it is 
required you take a military training. When you finish the required 
military training, the officers come around and beg you to take up 
advanced work. A colored student won the second prize in the 
drill. This student was the best student in his class of military 
training, and when he went to enlist for advanced training he was 
refused. The Colonel would not coasent to his taking advanced 
training. We appealed to “Prexy” Thompson, the best, grandest old 
president of any institution in the United States. It so happened that 
“Prexy” was powerless; you must have the consent of the Colonel 
in charge. What were we going to do when we had a representative 
of this United States Government that discriminated against a student 
taking advanced military training? 

Mrs. W. H, Fouse (Lexington, Ky.): In order to bring a better 
relationship between the Negro schools of Lexington and the white 
colleges, a series of lectures have been established that have been 





SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND RACE RELATIONS 155 


going on for the past four or five years, wherein college teachers and 
the president have come to the high school and delivered lectures. 
In turn the principal or supervisor of the colored school has each 
year for five years gone to Transylvania University and delivered 
lectures on the subject of the Negro, presenting just what is expected 
of them regarding the Negro. Students of the high school have 
rendered programs of their own choice in the Transylvania University 
and representatives of their student body have come over and helped 
our Y. I feel much good has been done in our city. I feel there is a 
better relation; I know it. There was a time when the college boys 
took our people for toys and now no such things are done. 

Mr. Green: Referring to the talk of the speaker from Des Moines, 
information has come to me recently, in the states of Iowa and 
Kansas, the universities of those states are thinking of making a 
change in the requirements for entrance. The entrance will be this: 
All persons will be admitted provided they can be admitted to the 
universities in the states from which they come. If a student should 
come from one of the southern states and wanted to enter a university 
in Iowa or Kansas, he could not do so because he would not be 
allowed to enter the university in the state where he came from. 
It seems there is great opportunity in the middle west, for the 
interracial committees to keep the doors open, for there will be colored 
boys and girls from southern states who will not have that recognition. 

Mr. Brown: As a graduate of the University of Iowa, I would 
like to know the source of the authority for the statement made re- 
garding the plans of the university? 

Mr. Greene: That comes from a student who took a summer course 
there last year. 

Professor Eubank: The Committee will now adjourn and return 
with their report. 

Chairman: We are ready for the address on Hducation and Race 
Relations by Dr. John Hope, President, Morehouse College, Atlanta, 
Ga. 

President Hope spoke in part as follows: 


This is a big question to us; education itself is a big question, but the 
question of education and race relations is a bigger question. And then 
when it comes to a question of education and race relations where the inter- 
racial relations are so different in so many places in the same country, it 
makes the subject exceedingly difficult. 

I have learned so much here in the last two days, and everything I have 
heard, every question that came up, seems to me had back of it a lack of 
education, or the wrong sort of education. I heard Mr. Nichols and two 
or three others discussing nurses and physicians. And this is what I said: 
Down south there are millions of people, and sometimes we talk in this 
meeting up here as though there are not millions down there, but there are 


156 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


millions there. I thought, these people are talking about nursing, and the 
states have not provided any means for making nurses. The states south of 
the Potomac and Ohio are not making any provisions for the education of 
physicians for colored people. I said, with all these Negroes, with all these 
diseases, there are only two medical schools south of the Ohio and Potomac, 
and those are too small to receive all the first rate Negro students who apply 
for admission. Dr. Dowling of Louisiana has said there is not much use to 
try to put forward a much bigger health program until there are more 
doctors, more colored doctors and colored nurses. 

When I think of my section of the country it is a question of education. 
I hardly have time to think about the various adjectives to use, but it is a 
question of education. The distinguished old Dr. Currie once said, “They 
talk about Negro education being a failure; it has not been tried.” That 
is what we are thinking about now. 

Now, when it comes to relations—interracial relations and education— 
there has always existed some sort of interracial relations in the education 
of the Negro. I knew, for instance, a man who died two years ago in 
Arlington, Georgia, owning considerable property. He read well, he attended 
to his own accounts and died in very comfortable circumstances. Now his 
education was due very largely to interracial relations, that is to say, his 
young master and young mistress, little boy and girl, would make copies 
in the soil for him and he would learn one or two letters of the alphabet 
while they were at school. When the law objected to that little class—they 
knew he would lose a finger or two if found writing—these children advised 
a more clever way; they would scratch the copy in his hand. He learned 
little by little, to read and write, etc., and in this way became very well 
prepared to look after his business. 

I was talking one day with a lad from Augusta, and I said, “Is it true 
your grandfather taught the slaves to read?” He said, “My grandfather 
taught them; he had no objections to the Negro’s learning to read and 
write; the only thing he was worried about was that the Yankees might 
put devilment in their heads.” So there was a good deal of interracial 
relations in the matter of Negro education, even before the Civil War; 
so when the war was over, there was a considerable number of Negroes who 
could read and write. 

When we think about interracial relations in the matter of education, 
more things come to our minds. Just after the Civil War, the public school 
educational system was put upon the South. I might practically say forced 
upon the South, because southern people—southern white people—did not 
have any background for free school education, and most of the white people 
who had education themselves, did not believe in it. In fact, there is a small 
group yet in the South that believes if you cannot pay for your education 
you ought not have it. Their notion is different from yours and mine. 

How did we get the schools?) Why, some clever colored man in the 
community, especially in the country places, would go to some white person 
in that community and make arrangements for a school, and then he would 
get a school teacher and the salary would be paid. You had interracial 
relations a long time and men began to capitalize that sort of thing. Take 
Booker Washington; he capitalized it to a great degree, encouraging Negroes 
to have that understanding with white people. Dr. Dillard projected still 
further this sort of interracial relations that has been existing here and 
there, at the convenience of different people in towns and communities. 
He took that sort of thing and organized it, so that, at the end of a certain 
number of years, we have come to the place where we are having in many 
rural places in the South fine secondary schools. 

They do not call them high schools yet, but “county training schools.” 
There are some sad things with reference to Negroes in this country— 
things so sad or difficult in the way of getting along—difficulty so great 
that white people ought to be very careful how they criticize colored people 


Bee ine. 3 





SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND RACE RELATIONS 157 


for getting along the best we can. It is a fact we are being severely 
criticized, but when a Negro man or woman wants his boy or girl educated 
he is not so apt to stand upon ceremony about the title of the school as 
he might be if he was thinking about some other boy or girl. So, as 
things go, it was a step forward for Dr. Dillard and his group to organize 
these county training schools. 

Now, that effort for county training schools did another thing. It 
organized sentiment in favor of Negro education. I was at a meeting ten 
years ago where educational questions were coming up with reference to 
the Negro in the South. There was a proposal to turn over to white people 
more and more the means for the higher education of the Negro in the 
colleges of the South. A southern white man, whose opinion was asked—I 
niight call his name; he is now gone to his reward—a man who did excellent 
service, a man named Snedeker, said: “I would not advise it; my people 
down south are not particularly interested in higher education. In fact,” 
he said, “seventy-five per cent of my people are not interested in any kind 
of education for colored people.” 

Now, this sentiment has been recognized by Dr. Dillard and a number of 
other men thinking as he thinks, until there is a better outlook. The out- 
look is so much better, that there was a group of white people in Atlanta 
who walked up to the powers that be, several years ago, after the Negroes 
had defeated a bond issue for public schools on two occasions, and said, 
“We do not blame Negroes for doing it; we ourselves will not work for the 
bond issue until you guarantee the Negroes better elementary schools and 
high schools.” The bonds were voted and we have the schools. Now 
those things are due really to interracial relations of a really high order, 
when you consider the circumstances. 

There are some things I might say about the situation in the border 
states, and in the northern states, that seem very disquieting to me, some 
things colored people in the South do not enjoy at all and are looking at 
with a great deal of apprehension. I hope you people up here, white and 
colored, will realize what is going on and what the probable results may 
be. But that large factor is for you yourselves to handle. 

However, the very biggest thing we have seen lately in interracial 
relations has been the meeting together in conferences of young college 
people, white and colored, in different parts of the country. I know of 
nothing that has happened lately that has been of a higher order than 
that. We older people, with few exceptions, pretty well have decided what 
we are going to think. That makes me think of an old lady that used 
to be at Spellman College, Atlanta. The girls used to tease her, and she 
said, “Go on, girls, I done made my character; you got your character to 
make.” A lot of us have made our character; but these young people are 
making their character, and the character they make will answer the question, 
what will be the condition of the Negroes in the United States, and to a 
certain extent what will be the condition of the white people in the United 
States. So, when I find your white and colored people meeting together, 
not only here but in several states of the South, I say we do now have an 
interracial relationship that has not before come to pass in this country. 

I have known young white men and young white women in the last 
fifteen or twenty years to take a stand in favor of higher education and 
better things for Negroes and I note that almost none of them have gone 
back to the flesh pots of Egypt, but have continued to stand up even where 
their public position and_ local surroundings might have kept them from 
voicing their expressions. When they were brought to the test they stood true. 

My friends, education is a colossal idea. It does not matter perhaps 
how it comes, just so it comes; but when it does come it is something more 
than books; something more than the use of funds; something more than 
the mere mechanics of thought and logic as we see argument. Education 
is a spirit and I am wondering whether a great country like this, that has 


158 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


been able to do everything that it has attempted to do, is going finally to 
give us a system of education that will have the spirit that is necessary and 
essential to the permanence of our country. 

Now we say this is an interracial conference of Christian people. Jesus 
Christ: Whatever your opinion may be about what His name was or how 
He came to be, I think all of us will agree that His principles are funda- 
mentally proper and not only that, but they are vital; His principles are 
aggressive. They are not something a man simply reads about, but they 
are something that simply get into a man and make him perform. 

I wonder whether, my young friends (and rather to you than to the 
rest), white and colored, as you think about this great question of the 
education of the people, are you willing to go just as far as your honest 
thinking will let you? That is what we are needing today, downright 
honesty in thinking. Thinking just as honestly as you can, and being brave 
enough to let that carry you wherever it will. If you think with Jesus Christ, 
your thinking will carry us into higher and finer places. And who knows, 
in the years to come, maybe neither George E. Haynes nor anybody else will 
have to call any conference in the United States to discuss the righteousness 
or unrighteousness existing between Negro and white people because we will 
have put that behind us and will be prepared in body, mind and soul, to be 
citizens in Jesus Christ. 


Chairman: We are ready now for the report of the Discussion 
Committee. 


REPORT OF DISCUSSION COMMITTEE ON SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 


Professor Eubank: Before making this report, I would like to 
ask all the students who are here from the various colleges and 
universities to stand for a moment to see how many are in Conference 
at this time. (Twenty-five representatives from colleges arose.) 
I thought the Conference did not appreciate the size of the contribu- 
tion you are making to this Conference. The student group also 
wishes to express to the Conference its appreciation of the opportunity 
given them to take a part in this Conference. 

Necessarily, our report is lmited. I shall go through it as 
quickly as I can. It boils down to a few fundamental things, whether 
we discuss schools or colleges or what. : 

This Committee believes: 


1. That the causes of racial antagonism arise fundamentally from social 
conditions; and that as such they are remediable through social changes. 

2. That the major factor to be utilized in bringing about social changes 
in this, as in any other realm of life, is Hducation. 

3. That the educational institutions of this country, from kindergarten 
up, therefore, constitute the strategic centers of approach in developing 
constructive interracial attitudes. 

The Committee recognized that the average cultural level of the Negro 
in the United States is distinctly below that of the white population. This 
in itself is a condition which militates against equality of recognition as 
inevitably as it does in the case of any two groups of different cultural 
levels. It believes, however, that the reasons for this reside largely in the 


& 
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SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND RACE RELATIONS 159 


fact that the same educational opportunities have not been available to the 
two races. 


The Committee, therefore, recommends: 


1. To all persons who have any part in directing the educational policies 
of this country: That everywhere Negroes be provided with educational 
facilities and opportunities equal to those extended to white students; and 
that where separate schools now exist equal standards of education be 
adhered to in all respects. 

2. To leaders of the colored people: That every encouragement be given 
and legitimate means be employed to induce the Negro people everywhere, 
to avail themselves of the maximum educational opportunity, to the end 
that the difference in cultural level between the two races be reduced as 
rapidly as possible. 

The Committee further expresses its conviction that a large part of the 
interracial prejudice manifested is due to the failure of the two groups to 
have an adequate understanding of each other. It therefore recommends: 

3. To educational authorities and to student bodies, both of public schools 
and of institutions of higher learning throughout the country: That oppor- 
tunities for sympathetic interracial contact and first-hand knowledge of 
each other be made possible and encouraged in every reasonable way. 

It suggests specifically: 

1. The presentation of materials and courses which will give a fair inter- 
pretation of each race to the other; in particular, that meritorious materials 
of Negro origin be as freely used as any other. 

2. hat competent representatives of the two races be interchanged. 

3. That Negro students in mixed schools be admitted to representation in 
the general student organizations as rapidly as favorable student opinion 
can be developed. 

4. That the method of interracial conference, which this and many other 
conferences have shown to be psychologically sound as a means to better 
understanding, be used as fully possible by the student bodies of the 
country. 


Mr. Robson: I rise to make a motion. After listening to a 
fine program on the schools and colleges I rise to make a motion 
that the report with the recommendations be adopted. (It was 
seconded. ) : 

Mr. Brown: I would like to amend that motion, that the Dis- 
cussion Committee and Dr. Hope be given a vote of thanks. 

Chairman: It has been moved and seconded that we adopt the 
report with recommendations of the Committee, expressing our thanks 
to the presiding officer, President Hope, and to the Discussion 
Committee. Those ready for the motion will lift their hands. (The 
motion was carried.) 


SUMMARY OF THE DISCUSSION ON 
IX. SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND RACE RELATIONS * 
A. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES . ; 
1. When schools are separate the Negro does not get his proper share 
of facilities. 


* Prepared by Professor Earle Edward Eubank, Department of Sociology, Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati. 


160 


TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


When schools are mixed the Negro does not receive recognition and 
representation in general affairs. Various discriminations are practiced. 


3. Lethargy and indifference of the Negro in taking advantage of what 


opportunities he has, so that his comparative showing is unfavorable. 


B. EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS 


ae a 02 ab be 


The rapid increase of interracial progress in colleges and universities. 
The increase in courses in college curriculum dealing fairly and intelli- 
gently with the Negro. 

The increase in interchange of white and Negro representatives be- 
tween schools. 

Negro representation on athletic, debating and other representative 
teams is increasing. 

Much larger numbers of Negro college students now than in the past. 
Up to 1912 a total of only 5,000 Negro college graduates but over 5,000 
from 1913 to 1925. 


‘> tee}, he 





EXCERPTS FROM 
ADDRESSES OF GENERAL SESSIONS 


By 


DR. C. V. ROMAN 

DR. WILL W. ALEXANDER 

DR. GEORGE EDMUND HAYNES 
DR. SHERWOOD EDDY 


ADDRESS OF DR. C. V. ROMAN * 


MOTIVE 


Motive forms character and determines personality. Conduct is 
but the fruition of motive or the reaction to environment. Motive 
may be so ingrained and habitual that it will not rise above the horizon 
of consciousness in the performance of many important deeds. Men 
seldom correctly evaluate their own motives, much less those of other 
men. 

Group conduct is apt to be higher in motive but lower in intelli- 
gence than individual conduct. This applies more particularly to 
stable and orderly groups but with certain limitations is as true of the 
mob as it is of the state. Cruelty as a national characteristic is 
harbinger of decay. The history of Spain in relation to the Moors, 
the Jews and the Indians illustrates this. 

Two things stand out in the history of American morals: 

1. Our ability to dodge and procrastinate. We will not willingly 
meet a moral issue squarely. We embrace every opportunity to 
detour from the highway of righteousness. This nation was “con- 


* Dxcerpts from address delivered, Thursday, March 26, 8:00 P.M. 
161 


162 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


ceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are 
created equal.” Yet it took nearly a hundred years of national 
existence to bring us face to face with the rightness or the wrongness 
of slavery and then we martyred the man that did it. We will do 
nothing as long as we can avoid the yea and nay form of a public 
question. 

2. When forced to a decision we decide right. The Civil War 
was the unfinished business of the Revolution and the war amend- 
ments to the Constitution were postscripts to the Declaration of 
Independence. We finally decided slavery was wrong. 

The motive behind the act is often more revealed by the conse- 
quences of the act than by the act itself. Much of our interracial 
talk and conduct does not bear the spiritual fruit expected because 
of hypocrisy—unconscious slave-psychology—white man seeking to 
boss and Negro seeking to dodge. These meetings will wear away the 
masks of hidden motive. Only the souls of the sincere shall be 
satisfied. 


IT 


MATTER 


There is a purposeful evolution of things; things happen in the 
fullness of time. 

Slavery is a phase of economic development. It has definite 
limitations as well as definite uses. The effort to fix that condition 
as a permanent group status must fail. The limitation of Negro 
citizenship has served its purpose and fulfilled its destiny. It must 
pass. There are but two places where civic status in a republic 
comes to static equilibrium: full citizenship with every right conceded 
and abject slavery with every right denied. There is no middle 
ground. There is no compromise between tyranny and liberty. One 
or the other must rule. The proper matter for interracial con- 
ference is the establishment of justice and fair play by mutual 
understanding and goodwill. 


IIl 


METHOD 


Next to pure motives and a righteous cause, tactful methods are 
necessary to success. Whatever your motive, it is hard to make a 
man happy by getting on his toes. If his toes be sore the most 








MOTIVES AND METHOD IN INTERRACIAL WORK 163 


peaceful intention may bring on a fight. The white man has been 
obeyed so much until he regards legitimate questions as unnecessary 
controversy and non-acquiescence in his decision as open declaration 
of war. He mistakes dictation for arbitration and condescension for 
kindness. The colored man has been coddled and kicked so much until 
it is hard for him to recognize or be satisfied with a square deal. 

The finest fruit of racial conference thus far has been the discovery 
of workable methods by which the races may peaceably approach each 
other to their mutual advantage. We must establish a new code of 
interracial ethics—the code of master and man will not work between 
man and man. Freedman and ex-slaveholder are one thing and 
freemen are another. “Massa’s in de col’, col’ ground’—The gentle 
voices have called “Old Black Joe.” If we do not evolve a sound 
creed of interracial confidence, then “My old Kentucky Home, good 
night.” 


LY; 


THE CURE 


When we contemplate the cure of racial friction in the light of 
all the diagnostic data, two things stand out: 

1. The unchanging nature of tyranny and injustice. 

2. The identity and constancy of human problems. 

They change names and shift places but remain the same. Whip- 
ping women to death in England, denying French women admission to 
high schools and lynching Negroes in the United States are supported 
by identical arguments. Benjamin Franklin fitted the arguments 
of a Georgia slaveholder of thé eighteenth century into the philosophy 
of a Mohammedan pirate of the ninth. Tyranny has but one 
tongue, though it speaks many languages. 

Nature seems to delight in mystery and the children of men 
learn her secrets slowly. For many thousands of years men believed 
in the rising and setting of the sun. The ancient nomenclature 
still preserves the memory of the ancient ignorance. It is as difficult 
to get clear-headedness into speech as it is to get kind-heartedness 
into conduct. 

By alias, alibi, masquerade and camouflage, injustice and tyranny 
manage to hide their identity and gloss their character from age 
to age and from locality to locality. Their multiform personality 
is so baffling that few recognize them. Race purity is another camou- 
flage of male lust to oppress one set of women and debauch another. 
One of the remedies of race friction is entirely in the hands of white 


164 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


women. ‘They could defend themselves by helping to protect colored 
women. A single standard of sex morals would make for racial 
peace as well as national righteousness. 

It is a question if race prejudice and injustice have not rendered 
the so-called Nordics incapable of sound ratiocination. We have 
seen in our own day a great scholar and leader die rather than permit 
a reservation to a political pact negotiated by himself. At the same 
time he made reservations to the Declaration of Independence that 
excluded the majority of mankind from the self-evident truths apply- 
ing to all men and excluding from the guaranteed rights of the 
Constitution ten per cent of his own fellow citizens. No wonder 
the stout heart failed and the great brain broke under the load! 

One of the high lights reflected from childhood’s happy days is 
the neighborhood sensation caused by my maternal grandfather 
holding a drunken man to physical accountability for abusive and 
slanderous language. They were members of the same church and 
brought to the bar for unbecoming conduct, one for drunkenness 
and the other for fighting. The bibulous brother sought and obtained 
forgiveness for his weakness, but he of the fisticuff was obdurate 
and sought to justify his conduct by a line of reasoning that divided 
the church and the neighborhood for many moons: “A drunken 
man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts,” he said. “I did not fight 
him for what he said when drunk but for what he thought when 
sober.” No verdict was ever rendered but grandfather’s philosophy 
crystallized into a local maxim of proverbial wisdom of wide accep- 
tance. Apparently irresponsible action is the result of responsible 
thought. Our conduct is the fruit of our philosophy. Men must 
think straight before they will act right. Race friction cannot cease 
while religion qualifies the Ten Commandments and philosophy 
teaches morals with ethnic reservations, 


ADDRESS OF DR. WILL W. ALEXANDER * 


Mr. Chairman and Friends: Occasionally one runs across a 
person who thinks that all of the people south of the Mason-Dixon 
line have a wrong attitude on racial questions, and that all of those 
north of the Mason-Dixon line live up in thought, word, and deed 
to the very highest ideals in matters racial. While there are peculiar 
difficulties connected with the racial situation in the South, and 
traditions that make it difficult for the realization of many of the 
things that obviously should be done both by individuals and com- 

* Excerpts from address delivered Friday, March 27, 8:00 P.M. 


+ er — . Wee 





MOTIVES AND METHOD IN INTERRACIAL WORK 165 


munities, there are also a growing number of courageous people who 
are determined that these handicaps shall be overcome and that 
justice shall be done to all citizens, regardless of race or color. The 
spirit that characterizes friends of racial goodwill in the South could 
be extended with very great profit to many other communities outside 
the South for it is becoming more and more evident that racial prej- 
udice and discrimination in this country is not geographic, and 
with the shift of Negro population to sections of the country outside 
the South, we have already had many demonstrations of the ease 
with which communities become hysterical and unreasonable and the 
difficulty of eliminating discrimination and securing justice. 

Race prejudice is a very subtle and deceptive thing. I have a 
friend who is prominent in missionary work among Negroes in the 
South. His son, a very brilliant student of one of the graduate 
schools of Harvard, approves of his father’s work in the South, and is 
greatly interested in what I am doing. He has no prejudice against 
Negroes, but becomes most unreasonable when Jews are mentioned. 
In one southern community is a school, founded and developed by a 
very brilliant Negro woman, who has a remarkable personality. Not 
long ago she was telling me of the development of her institution. 
Among other things she told me of a recent trip she took in an 
automobile with a group of her students. Illustrating the difficulty 
of travel for Negroes in the South, she told of being refused food 
in a restaurant in a small southern town and closed her remarks 
by saying, “The good for-nothing Greek, who kept that restaurant had 
no business in America, anyway.” Hach of these persons would have 
condemned race prejudice in the abstract, but were the unconscious 
victims of a peculiar race prejudice that they nurtured almost as a 
virtue. 

Most of us are ready to condemn race prejudice in the abstract. 
However, more energy has been spent in the condemnation of race 
prejudice in the abstract than in finding ways by which race prejudice 
can be supplanted by racial appreciation and goodwill. 

The hour has come when the friends of tolerance and goodwill 
must show themselves social engineers with sufficient skill to build 
new racial attitudes, based upon the high principles that are being 
given expression on every hand. The majority of Americans are 
capable of tolerance and can be made to believe and support justice. 
What we need is a method by which this can be done, and there is 
very much more value in experimenting for the discovery of such 
methods than in denouncing racial intolerance and injustice. 

A small group of men and women in the South have been really 
trying to experiment in changing the racial attitudes of individuals, 


166 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


organizations, and communities. One thing, however, seems to have 
been made clearer by these efforts and that is the closer you get to 
the situation with which you are dealing, the more effective will be 
your dealing with it. Very little can be done with a situation of this 
sort by absent treatment however skillful and officially important the 
absentee doctor may be. Human brotherhood is very much closer 
between men who live together in the same community than between 
any other groups in the world. There is more in common between 
white men and colored men living together in Mississippi than 
between the white men who live in Mississippi and Negroes who 
live elsewhere. Christian statesmen may well give themselves to 
developing the Christian community as the next unit in enlarging the 
Kingdom of God in the world. 

Our task is to reach back into the thousands of isolated com- 
munities and dig into their tough soil and begin to sow there in the 
terms of the life of that community the seeds of tolerance and good- 
will. I wish there were some magic process by which some national 
organization or some national leader could by saying a magical word 
or touching an electric switch in an office in New York or Washington 
flood the nation with understanding and tolerance. This can never 
be—so we must go back to our own communities, and to the men 
and women in other communities, and inspire them to the rather 
drab and commonplace task of building brotherhood in the local 
communities where they live. 

We go about from state to state and community to community, 
exhorting people to solve the race problem. An expert, you know, 
is an ordinary man a long way from home. In a sense, the experts 
in this task are the least important persons connected with it. What 
we need is a larger number of intelligent men and women, whose 
tasks confine them to a single community and who will patiently and 
determinedly seek to build racial brotherhood in that community. 
An ounce of demonstration is worth a train load of exhortation. 

We have held many interracial meetings in a great many com- 
munities, and with a great many different types of people. Very 
early we discovered that this is a question capable of calling out more 
types of emotional response than perhaps any other question in the 
country. Lying back of it is a tremendous background of tragedy 
that appeals to one’s feelings. There are persons with whom one 
comes in contact at these meetings who stir one’s feelings to the 
very depths. There are always stirring reports of injustice and heroic 
resistance. I have on my staff a very keen, young, college man} 
whose insight into racial attitudes and their causes is as sure as any 
I have ever known. This young man used to watch the people who 





MOTIVES AND METHOD IN INTERRACIAL WORK 167 


came into the meetings and say of a very large number of them that 
“they came to have their emotions tweaked.” They were hardly 
ever disappointed, and we discovered that the more positive were the 
reactions to the “tweaking,” the less we could expect from them when 
they left the meeting. 

Of course, we need to kindle in America a burning fire of resent- 
ment against intolerance and injustice, but we need something 
more. It is very much easier to “tweak” one’s emotions than it is to 
do the patient laboratory work necessary to find a way out. Most 
anyone can run for a while and not be weary. In this task of 
building racial understanding we need a great many people who can 
walk through long and laborious days and not faint. In fact, we need 
some who can stand still and do the patient thinking which is so 
very difficult for Americans, who are so much more capable of solving 
problems with their feet than with their heads. This task calls for 
some foot work, but for a great deal of patient, honest thinking. 

In the South we have been encouraged by the enthusiastic response 
of the students to an appeal for a better order of things in that 
section of the country. The students have never failed to meet the 
appeal with a ready, enthusiastic response. This emotion has the 
greatest value, but its efficiency will be measured in part by the 
thoroughness of the training they get in college in social theory and 
social engineering. We have just finished a study of the teaching 
of social science in the southern colleges, and with a few exceptions, 
it amounts to a little or nothing. So long as this is true, the fine 
enthusiasm of these young students is pretty largely run to waste. 
These tasks call for high social engineers, as well as moral crusaders. 

The question of segregation and housing is a good illustration. 
Everyone in this room could tell stirring stories of hardships and 
injustices which are wrought by segregation, but I doubt, if any 
one in this room, can tell accurately how the present segregation 
system has been brought about or what are the forces that keep 
it alive. It is very easy to say that prejudice and meanness are 
responsible for it, and, yet, we need to get closer to the economic, 
political, and social facts. We shall not get very far until we develop 
the wisdom necessary to recognize and deal effectively with these 
various contributing and complicating aspects of segregation. To 
that end, our Commission will begin early in the fall, in codperation 
with others, a nation-wide study of housing and segregation. We 
hope to make it as dispassionate and scientific as such a study can 
be made. We have faith that in picking the thing up in its entirety 
and studying it, we are taking the first step toward doing something 
about it. 


168 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


May I say in closing that it is very much easier to lead a crusade 
of denunciation than it is to do this hard and difficult work of study 
and understanding which must be the foundation of any effective 
dealing with this question. The success of this conference will 
depend not upon the amount of “tweaks” which our emotions have 
received, but upon the amount of determination that has been stirred 
within us to do not only the moral heroics but the patient study which 
alone can bring the light we need to find our way. 


ADDRESS OF DR. GEORGE EDMUND HAYNES * 


It always helps me in my thinking, and it certainly helps to give me 
poise as I face these tangled and difficult race problems of today 
to realize that we are working out things that have come down from 
the past, and to realize that we are not going to settle all of them, 
and that whatever we do about them is going to hand them on either 
harder or easier for the generation that comes after us. And it 
seems to me it is very important for us in dealing with the present 
situation to realize some of the efforts that have been made towards 
its solution in the past. They may save us from some mistakes. 

If you will look back a little historically at the relation of 
white to Negro peoples in America, and some of you doubtless have, 
you will discover many panaceas have been proposed, and many of 
them tried at one time or another. I want to mention two or three 
in order to bring up a little historical perspective to the problems 
that we have been considering during these last two or three days. 

About four months ago a writer in the Current History magazine 
of the New York Times published an article on the racial situation 
and proposed as a solution that we should find some haven, some 
asylum either in the West Indies or in Africa, and we should offer 
all the Negroes who would go over there free transportation and 
help in getting their foothold; that we should use social pressure 
to force those who did not choose to go. I suppose he wrote that 
article and made that proposition with the idea that he was proposing 
something new that was going to solve the situation. 

If, however, he had gone back a hundred years he would have 
found that was one of the most favored propositions on the race 
question in America, that we had a national colonization society headed 
by Henry Clay, one of the leading statesmen, with large funds and 
branch organizations in many states. They actually did transport 
some manumitted slaves to the west coast of Africa. We have the 

* Excerpts from address delivered, Friday, March 27, 8:30 P.M. 


wed Mi 
Sets A 


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MOTIVES AND METHOD IN INTERRACIAL WORK 169 


little Republic of Liberia as a result now struggling for its existence, 
only kept intact by the friendly interest and help of the United 
States. There are about thirty thousand Americo-Liberians, the de- 
scendants of those who were sent over there by the American Coloniza- 
tion Society. This historical fact may help us to realize that colon- 
ization of the Negro will not solve the situation. Booker T. Wash- 
ington once said if you got the Negroes to go off and colonize in that 
way, you would have to have two walls around the territory, one to 
keep the Negroes in and one to keep the white people out. 

One of our university professors has proposed that in our democ- 
racy, with its great Negro population, there is only one solution: 
To have a class of serf-citizens, a sort of class that would never have 
the full privilege of franchise of American citizens. I can best answer 
that professor by paraphrasing the statement of Abraham Lincoln 
that shook the very foundation of slavery. In a memorable speech 
he said that a house divided against itself cannot stand, that American 
democracy cannot continue half slave and half free; it must be the 
one thing or the other. No more can it be half serf and half citizen. 
Whenever a college professor brings up that proposition, or anybody 
else brings it up, he should be reminded that we fought a civil 
war; we spent a river of blood and a mountain of treasure to settle 
that issue of citizenship in America once and forever. 

Dr. Alexander spoke a moment ago about segregation. The 
segregation policy started about 1890; that is within the lifetime 
of a great many of us younger people here. It started first with the 
disfranchisement laws in Mississippi. The last disfranchisement 
laws were enacted in Oklahoma about 1910. In the wake of the 
disfranchisement laws followed legislation for “Jim Crow” railroad 
cars and street cars. With the growth of intelligence and with the 
growth of self-respect, and with the growth of race-consciousness, 
Negroes have gradually withdrawn unto themselves and have gradually 
built up a Negro world more or less within the larger world. Espe- 
cially in our large cities where there is a large population of Negroes 
that is very true. And these city Negro populations are largely 
segregated from other parts of the population. 

I am one of those who believe, like Dr. Alexander, that we awoke 
to some of the possibilities of this segregation, some of its sad trage- 
dies, during the World War. It separates American citizens who are 
living in the same communities, into two great groups that have very 
little commerce one with the other. A Negro child may be born, 
may grow up in a separate neighborhood, may go to a separate school, 
may ride on Jim Crow street cars and railroad trains, may have its 
life insured in a colored company, may get sick and go to a separate 


170 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


colored hospital, may go to a Negro church, and may die and be buried 
in a separate cemetery. Through it all the segregated life keeps 
him separated from the great other half of the world in which he 
lives. The same may be true of the white child that may grow up 
in ignorance of the real life of large groups of his fellow citizens. 
We are trying to build in communities in a common territory an 
American democratic life with that kind of segregated arrangement. 

As long as two peoples live in the same territory they cannot 
separate their interests and maintain such a segregated life. If 
over in John Street in Cincinnati or in the “Black Bottom” of Nash- 
ville typhoid fever or tuberculosis becomes rampant, it does not heed 
any segregation. If vice is allowed to flourish, and if the red light 
district, as is true in many of our cities as shown by actual investiga- 
tion, 1s allowed to flourish in the Negro district or on the border of it, 
it is going to spread and contaminate the whole community. I 
think our communities and our nation have not yet begun to realize 
and awaken to this truth. We need to give attention to this segrega- 
tion policy that has grown up in our midst during the present 
generation. | 

You hear people talking about the housing and segregation of 
Negroes as though it had been a fixed policy for all time. If you 
go back into the history of cities like Memphis or Nashville, Tennessee, 
or Atlanta, Ga., or Louisville, Ky., or many of the smaller places, you 
will find that thirty years ago white and Negro populations were no 
more segregated then they are in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we 
found in a study last November that the colored people were dis- 
tributed practically in all the principal residential sections of the city. 

Let me mention, however, some of the other things that have gone 
on during preceding generations reaching clear back to the eighteenth 
century, even back to the constitutional convention of the framing of 
the Constitution, even back to the Declaration of Independence. 
There have been a few men and women, increasing in number as the 
years have come and gone, who have seen the larger vision of democ- 
racy and the coming of the Kingdom of God in America; men and 
women who dreamed a dream no mortals ever dared dream before; 
men and women who saw beyond the years in which they lived, and 
who believed that in fact as well as in theory on this free soil, in 
this free land of America, there would and should be in reality a 
brotherhood of men that included all men, black as well as white, red 
as well as brown. These men and women comprised a little handful 
of Quakers as non-conformists at first; their numbers have grown; 
they have spread to other church congregations, and today they are 
found in nearly all the churches of America. In the course of their 


MOTIVES AND METHOD IN INTERRACIAL WORK 171 


growth several of our Protestant denominations have split over that 
issue. 

Every time there is a resurgence of the idea of force and violence 
and exploitation of one kind or another, either the issue of slavery or 
emancipation—or the question of shoving these people off into a corner 
segregated to themselves, or pushing them away by some coloniza- 
tion scheme to themselves, or pressing them down into a lower state 
of citizenship; every time such a proposition has been put forward 
to use either the social pressure or the economic pressure, or the 
brutal force and violence to subjugate and exploit, people of such 
vision have stepped forward and said: “No, there is a different way, 
there is a better way, there is an ideal way, the way of faith, the way 
of understanding, the way of goodwill. We can go that way toward 
adjustment and peace and prosperity.” 

From the days of Benjamin Lundy, a Kentuckian, the first aboli- 
tionist who was one of the spiritual fathers of William Lloyd Garrison, 
down to John J. Hagan and Will W. Alexander, there have been 
men and women who have seen the vision and responded to it with 
enthusiasm and with assurance. They have thrown themselves into 
the task of leading other men and women to see it and to live it out 
in the hard rugged days of our common life. 

It was a little group of such men, led by John J. Eagan, who in 
1919—just after the signing of the Armistice, when again the red, 
gory fingers of violence were reaching out and gripping our com- 
munities, not only in the South but in the North where Chicago and 
Omaha and Washington and other places had their riots and mobs— 
who with prayer and faith stood up and said, “Men and brothers, we 
can find a way out through conciliation and codperation.” 

At that time I happened to be a government official in the United 
States Department of Labor. There came to the Secretary’s desk one 
day a telegram from the Governor of one of the southern states 
asking that some officials be sent down for counsel because of a 
situation that was getting beyond his control. One of the other 
officials and I were sent down. We spent a day in consultation with 
the Governor and his staff. This was the situation. A battalion of 
Negro soldiers, just back from France, had been mustered out in 
front of the state house just a few days before. One of the speakers, 
a Negro minister, had said something about their having learned 
to shoot and now being prepared to protect their liberties. A report 
of this speech spread like wild fire among white men of that state. 
The “home guards” of white men were reorganized in three or four of 
the principal cities. In one of those cities they had plans set to 
attack colored people, especially the men, because they thought these 


172 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


soldiers were about to organize the colored people to attack the whites. 
The Governor told us that if anything like that started in the city 
he knew he did not have power to protect colored citizens. This is 
just one illustration of tense conditions in many places. 

In the face of a southwide situation similar to that these men met 
in Atlanta for a day of prayer and counsel on what they might do 
to meet it in such local communities. They called in the war work 
secretaries of the Y. M. C. A. in that region. The Y. M.C. A. and the 
Y.W.C.A. had been pioneers in a good deal of interracial work. 
Out of such prayer and deliberations grew the plan of visits to the 
local communities of the South with request to the strong white and 
colored citizens of each community to get together and try to do the 
something to deal with their local situations. 

They suggested two principles: First, that each side had a right 
to come into the council and plan together where their mutual inter- 
ests were involved; that the white men should confer with colored 
men about their mutual interests. This was just the reverse of 
what one white man said about my work in the Department of Labor 
during the World War: “We tell Negroes what to do; we don’t confer 
with them.” Second, that if these leaders with sincerity and frank- 
ness and the determination of goodwill believed in each other and 
faced their situation squarely they could at least grapple with it if 
anything occurred. 

Now, we have never said, and never felt, and never believed that 
this method was going to do away with all the problems. We do not 
look for any general panacea. These problems are going to be just as 
difficult. Prejudices are going to be just as strong, misunderstandings 
will still have to be faced, slums will still be there, conflicts of inter- 
ests will not disappear. The difference, however, has been that a 
great asset has come from the agreement to face the situation together 
in a friendly spirit and with open minds. This is illustrated by a 
true story of the thing that happened in Atlanta, when, in the early 
days of the interracial movement a committee of white men asked 
a group of colored men to come and meet with them. These colored 
men came, rather suspicious, and not knowing what the white men 
wanted. When one of those white men said they had come to ask 
what they could join hands with the Negro men in doing to help the 
racial situation in their community, one of those Negro men arose 
and with tears running down his cheeks, said, “Gentlemen, you have 
done already the greatest thing that you could do in helping this 
situation. You have come to confer with us as men and ask us to 
join hands with you in meeting it.” That did mark a new day in 
their attack upon their problem. 


MOTIVES AND METHOD ININTERRACIAL WORK 173 


Out of this effort, ladies and gentlemen, we are going gradually 
to come to see a new day because this movement recognizes that 
both races are integral parts of the community, that the problems 
that confront us are common, that our interests are interdependent, 
and that, for better or for worse, we face the future together for the 
destiny of both races is involved in the outcome. 


ADDRESS OF DR. SHERWOOD EDDY * 


Friends: I feel highly honored to be invited to speak at the 
first conference that I think may mark a milestone of advance in the 
better relations between these two great races. During the last 
thirty years, the first year in this country and the next twenty-nine 
years abroad, my work in traveling has taken me through the different 
countries and among the different races of the world. I spent the 
first fifteen years abroad in India, then as secretary for Asia, working 
among the populations of that great continent, then in the World 
War zone with the different races there. Thus I have seen something 
of the world situation in Asia, in Europe and in America. Every- 
where I traveled I found the gravity of this race problem. It cannot 
be escaped. 

Roughly, about one-third of the human race is white, about one- 
third is yellow, and about one-third is black or brown. Some two- 
thirds of humanity are in some sense colored people. Do we believe 
that humanity is only in one favored color, or class, or clique, or creed, 
or race, or religion? I believe that humanity is one, created of one 
blood, of all men on the face of the earth, to dwell together in unity. 
And I believe that this world was created not for a battle ground 
but for a brotherhood; not for a warring battlefield of races, of 
classes and of nations, dragging the world back again and again into 
war, but as a codperative human family, bound together in ties of one 
great love. 

The rapid increase of population, bringing pressure to bear upon 
the means of subsistence, has crowded us together. If the population 
increases steadily at the present rate of increase, this world will be 
filled 120 years from now. Who is to populate the world? What 
method of birth control, or race control, of cooperation, or of strife, is 
to solve this problem? In South Africa, on their own soil, where the 
whites are outnumbered four to one, in town after town, the African 
is not allowed to walk on the sidewalk; he must walk in the streets 
with the cattle. Everywhere I find a growing African racial con- 


* Excerpts from address delivered, Friday, March 27, 9:00 P.M, 


174. TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


sciousness. Everywhere the tides of democracy are sweeping around 
the world; races are coming into a new aspiration in which the sense 
of wounded self-respect and of thwarted manhood is making them 
demand their rightful place. One of the great political leaders of 
India said that “In a matter of honor we prefer death to anything 
else.” I find the race problem very acute in India. 

I find it acute also in Japan. I was there after the Washington 
Disarmament Conference—every cloud was rolled away; there was 
the clear sunshine of friendship; America was considered Japan’s 
best friend. Then came the great earthquake, when, in forty-eight 
hours Japan lost more than she lost in the whole Russian-Japanese 
war. Again America came to her aid and was her best friend. And 
then later, in a day, by the particular form of a section of our recent 
Immigration Act we undid it all and made a deep and lasting wound 
in the heart of that great friendly people. Even if we had permitted 
them to enter on the basis of other nations on the 1890 quota, it 
would have meant only 150 a year. Or if we did not even want the 
150, if we had permitted President Coolidge to negotiate a friendly 
round-table agreement with that great sister nation, how gladly they 
would have reached such an agreement. They would not have felt 
humiliated. They do not want their people to come here. They 
want them in Korea, in Manchuria, in Formosa, in those places where 
they are expanding, where their future lies. 

But, would we permit President Coolidge to make such a round- 
table agreement? No! We insisted on a form of words, on an 
invidious distinction and exclusion which made a deep wound in the 
heart of that great friendly power. We would not even permit the 
Japanese minister, well within the truth, with the greatest courtesy, 
to express the fear that it might lead to serious consequences. Any 
one who knows the Far Hast would say that it would almost certainly 
lead to serious consequences. Japan, having been rejected by America, 
has already been driven into an alliance with Russia. 

There is another domestic aspect of this race problem. I come 
back to America, and I find this sad tale of lynching. Thank God 
it has improved in the last four years, for reasons I shall mention 
presently. Nevertheless, I come back to my own country to find that 
we are the only country that descends to this disgraceful, this pathetic 
barbarism. I find little or no color or race prejudice as I move among 
the great Russian and Slavic peoples; I find little or no race prejudice 
among the Latin races. 

Four peoples suffer most from this disease of race prejudice. 
The four peoples that suffer most may be mentioned in this order: 
First and foremost, the people of this country. America leads the 


MOTIVES AND METHOD IN INTERRACIAL WORK 175 


world in race prejudice. Second, our friends, the British; third, 
the Germans; fourth, the high caste people of India in their treatment 
of the outcasts and the low castes. In other words, it is the Anglo- 
Saxon and the Teutonic peoples, not the Latins, not the Slavs, that 
are suffering most from this race prejudice. 

I came back to my country from my last journey around the 
world, where I saw the hindrance that lynching has proved in mis- 
sionary work in Japan. I not only saw in the papers there the account 
of the last lynching, but the very photograph of the deed, where our 
people are held up and pitied before the seventy millions of Japan. 
I found in China also the account of the last lynching. I found 
it not only in the daily press of India, but in the Christian press, 
where we are pitied as the only people who descend to this barbarism. 
It is proving a very real hindrance to our missionary work. 

I come back to America to find deep race prejudice, suspicion, 
hatred and propaganda. I found prejudice against the Jew, that 
race to which we owe so much. Much we owe to the Greek, much to 
the Roman but more to that great race of prophets that gave us the 
Christian basis of our civilization. And to one member of that race 
I owe more than to all the rest of humanity combined, Jesus Christ, 
my Lord and my God, according to the flesh. I would cut off my hand 
before I would take any part in any propaganda of race prejudice 
against the Jew or against the Catholic, the brother for whom 
Christ died. And, yet, I have just come from a city, where I found 
well-meaning Protestants handing out in front of their churches 
a false oath attributed to the Knights of Columbus, an allegation to 
foment suspicion, hatred and division. The allegation has been 
proven false in court after court in the United States, and is so 
registered on the records of Congress. We know it has been testi- 
fied to as false by representative committees of Masons and by repre- 
sentative Protestant business men of America. To propagate such 
hatred and falsehood in the name of the lowly Jesus of Nazareth is 
pathetic. I have just come from another city where I found poor 
Negroes, armed with cheap revolvers, in deadly terror of these same 
followers of the lowly Jesus, and again I hang my head in shame. 
It was the very Mayflower, that brought the Pilgrim Fathers to liberty 
that went on its second voyage for a cargo of slaves, and Hawkins, 
knighted by Queen Elizabeth, plied his slave trade in his ship “Jesus.” 

Our present race prejudice may be traced in part to economic 
causes, or to political causes where, as in India, one race is trying 
to rule another. It may be traced also to difference in customs and 
manners; it may be traced at times to fear of inter-marriage; but 


176 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


it is traceable usually, I believe, to the sense of racial superiority and 
the corresponding notion of inferiority of other races. 

What is the cure? Some would point to racial domination, with 
one race claiming superiority; always their own race. Some would 
look to segregation; some to amalgamation; some to eugenics; all 
kinds of panaceas are held out. For myself, I can see no hope save 
as we come back to those eternal principles taught by Jesus Christ 
and actually practice them. There is first the principle of God as 
the Father of all men; second, the principle of the equal worth of 
each human soul, each priceless personality, with incalculable possi- 
bilities of development; third, the equal brotherhood of all; and, 
fourth, the great principle of love, not as an idle sentiment or passing 
emotion, but the full sharing of life in indomitable goodwill. Jesus 
practiced these principles. He not only taught them, but he prac- 
ticed them. He went out as the Good Samaritan of humanity and 
ministered to the needy, regardless of rank, race or religion. 

And, yet, not only can Mr. H. G. Wells say that race prejudice 
today is the most evil thing in the world, that it holds more abomina- 
tion and cruelty than any other thing, but the great writer, Mr. 
Graham Wallas, can say that Christianity has harbored more of 
race prejudice and brutality than Mohammedanism ; that Christianity 
has not been able to arrive even at a temporary working compromise 
on the race problem. 

Let me mention an illustration where professing Christians failed 
to practice these principles of Jesus. The son of a prominent Christian 
leader in Asia came to study in this country. I saw him before he 
left. I asked him how he was going back. He said, “I am going 
back as an atheist. I could never accept the religion of people who 
treated me like a dog in this country.” 

I saw my friend John J. Eagan, after the war, with Will Alexander, 
gather together a little group of white men in Atlanta, and a group 
of colored men, to study these racial problems, economic, social, moral 
and religious, in their city. I stood in that city in a new colored 
school that cost a quarter of a million dollars; I visited the new 
colored bank; I saw new and better paved streets, better racial con- 
ditions, better moral conditions and more friendship. I saw the 
problem at least being considered and solutions sought through con- 
ciliation because a little group of men of the two races got together 
in indomitable goodwill, men who have a determination and under- 
stand each other, and who came together as friends, equals, and 
brothers, by codperation, trying to study the problem and solve it. 
I do believe that real codperation and indomitable goodwill will lead 
us to a solution. 


MOTIVES AND METHOD ININTERRACIAL WORK 17? 


In one of the addresses of Booker T. Washington, he said, “I 
will permit no man to degrade my soul by making me hate him.” 
The Negro people may be called a great cross-bearing race, and may 
be said to follow Jesus of Nazareth. I stood on the spot where 
Booker Washington built up his great institution on an old hill at 
Tuskegee. I stood on that hill which he bought at fifty cents an 
acre, waste land, nothing on it but sand and clay. I saw there 111 
great stone and brick buildings, a plant with an endowment of six 
to eight millions of dollars. It is rising rapidly every year. I saw 
2,000 students, who, in addition to their academic studies, were 
learning a score of useful trades. I stood there beside Professor 
Carver, whom Booker Washington found as a student of chemistry, 
and said to him, “We can’t give you any laboratory but tackle that 
old hill and see what you can make out of it.” That Negro chemist 
went out to that hill and produced eighty-five commercial products 
out of the clay; over two hundred out of the peanut and over one 
hundred and twelve out of the sweet potato. 

Within one generation, within the life-time of men sitting here 
tonight since 1866 after the Civil War, the Negro population has 
increased nearly three-fold; their literacy has increased seven-fold, 
raised from ten per cent to eighty per cent; their farms owned 
increased twenty-fold; their homes owned over fifty-fold; their 
business operated thirty-five-fold, from 2,000 to over 70,000; the 
value of their church property over seventy-fold; their estimated 
wealth has risen from twenty millions to twenty hundred millions. 
In spite of the inequality of opportunity, inequality of education, 
inequality of development, there is in these facts proof of the under- 
lying truth of a great and abiding spiritual quality of fellow mem- 
bers of one great brotherhood of humanity ; that each race contributes 
its own peculiar gifts. 

I believe in full equality of race treatment; I believe in one 
unbroken brotherhood, and I see no solution for our problem save in 
the passion of love, a love that can suffer, a love than can bear, a love 
that can die but rise again. For only love will win and can win, 
and bridge these great gulfs that separate us in race prejudice and 
passion. 

I was told a story that in South Africa in the war between the 
Julus and the British, when the Zulus came forward with a flag of 
truce, by some terrible mistake the British soldiers shot down that 
bearer of the flag of truce. The British officer, feeling ashamed, 
determined, if necessary, to forfeit his own life. He went forward 
empty handed to apologize, and if necessary, to lay down his life 


gigabit TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


for that misdeed. The Zulu chief met him, and he said, “You are 
a man, we also are men, let us make peace.” And they made peace. 

One, in the advancement of humanity, bearing its wrongs and its 
shame, has gone out to make peace, reconciling us in the blood of 
His cross. Shall we follow Him, bearing His reproach, bearing His 
shame, determined to understand, and as one unbroken brotherhood, 
small though our numbers be, work on and on until we shall bring 
these divided races together in one love, where there shall be neither 
Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither Catholic nor Protestant, 
neither white nor black, neither East nor West, but all shall be one 
in Christ ? 


SUMMARY OF 
LEADING SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS * 


GROWING OUT OF THE CONFERENCE 
I. To NEWSPAPERS 

1. That the word “Negro” be capitalized wherever used in the press. 

2. That when crimes are committed by Negroes the racial designation of 
the offender be omitted, especially from the headlines. 

3. That a point be made of featuring items which reflect credit upon the 
Negro race, and that place be more largely given to affairs and events 
of importance of them, and that in general Negro news be written up 
so as not to provoke unfavorable reaction on the part of the reader. 

II. To EmMpLoyrers 

1. That wherever Negroes are employed they shall receive payment equal 
to that received by white labor for the same work. 

2. That larger opportunity be given for Negroes to occupy positions of 
skill and responsibility. 

III. To Trape Unions 

1. That there shall be no disbarment from membership on account of race 
or color. 

IV. To SocraL AGENCIES 

1. That as far as possible social service be carried on with reference to 
Negroes not as a separate racial group, but as fellow citizens of a 
common community. 

2. That Negroes be placed upon the employed staffs and governing boards 
of agencies which have a considerable amount of work with Negroes. 

3. That effort shall be made to adjust Negro migrants to their new local- 
ities so that there may not arise through ignorance any violation of 
law. 

V. To Locat ComMMUNITIES 

1, That local interracial committees be formed for the purpose of study- 
ing local interracial needs, and organizing the community for intelli- 
gent action. These local committees should contain representatives of 
all interests most closely involved in local interracial matters. 
That adequate police protection and vice regulation be accorded Negro 
district and population. 
That housing and health standards be rigidly enforced in Negro districts. 
That compulsory segregation ofNegroes be abolished. 
To Courts oF JUSTICE 
That where the number of Negroes involved is large there be provided 
Negro members of juries, and Negro police and probation officers. 


* Prepared by Professor Harle Edward Eubank, Department of Sociology, Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati. 


mim oo bo 


MOTIVES AND METHOD ININTERRACIAL WORK 179 


2. That the Negro be given “white man’s justice” in every court where 
he appears. 

3. That the Negro be given his Constitutional rights—especially that of 
franchise—in every community where it is denied him. 

VII. To CHurcHES 

1, That groups be organized under religious auspices for the study of racial 
questions. 

2. That wherever possible there be interchange of pulpits. 

3. That official church boards be asked to consider racial problems as of 
crucial importance. 

VIII. To ScHoot AUTHORITIES AND STUDENT BopiEs 

1. That everywhere Negroes be provided with educational facilities and 
opportunities equal to those extended to white students, and that where 
separate schools now exist equal standards of education be adhered to 
in all respects. (This particularly needed in regard to medical edu- 
cation. ) 

2. That opportunities for sympathetic interracial contact, and first hand 
knowledge of students of different races be made possible and encouraged 
in every reasonable way, especially by conference and interchange of 
competent representatives. 

3. That materials and courses be presented which will give a fair inter- 
pretation of each race to the other, and in particular that meritorious 
materials of Negro origin be as freely used as any other. 

4, That in mixed schools Negro students be admitted to representation 
in the general student organizations as rapidly as favorable student 
opinion can be developed. 

IX. To LEADERS oF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 

1, That every encouragement be given and every legitimate means be 
employed to induce Negroes everywhere to avail themselves of the 
maximum of every educational opportunity afforded, to the end that 
differences in cultural level between the two races may be reduced 
as rapidly as possible. 

X. IN GENERAL 

Throughout the Conference it was recognized that open-minded study of 
conditions and mutual facing of the facts must be the bases for better under- 
standing and interracial cooperation. 

In conclusion the Conference adopted the statement of the Committee 
on Schools and Colleges as follows: 

We believe 
That racial antagonism arises fundamentally from social conditions, 
and that as such it is remediable through changes in those conditions, 
which will lead to revised social attitudes. 


LIST OF SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND POINTS SENT TO DELEGATES 
PRECEDING CONFERENCE 


PLAN OF OPEN FORUM DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND POINTS FOR 
PREPARATION OF DELEGATES: EACH DELEGATE IS URGED TO STUDY 
HIS OWN COMMUNITY ALONG LINES OF THESE SUGGESTIONS 
BEFORE COMING TO THE CONFERENCE 


NATIONAL INTERRACIAL CONFERENCE 
Cincinnati, Ohio—March 25-27, 1925. 


PLAN OF OPEN FORUM DISCUSSION OF TOPICS 


For each topic a definite amount of time on the program will be allotted. 
A part of that time will be taken by the delegates in stating (1) the most 
pressing problems that confront them in their localities; (2) what solutions 
they have attempted; and (3) experience in getting results. 


180 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


When the time for this part of the open forum discussion on each topic 
is used up, the discussion committee, in charge of the topic, who have listened 
to the reports, will retire for a few minutes to sift out the main points that 
need further consideration. 

While the discussion committee is deliberating an address will be given 
on the topic under consideration by some one competent to speak upon it. 
The discussion committee will bring in the main points presented by the 
delegates and other points considered worth while by the committee. The 
open forum discussion will then continue for the balance of the time allotted 
to the topic with the members of the committee adding such information and 
giving such guidance as will make the discussion fruitful. 

To help the delegates in preparation for the discussion before they come 
to the conference, suggestions and questions for their guidance in studying 
their own local situation have been prepared and are given in the following 


paragraphs: | 
IN. PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON HEALTH AND RACE RELATIONS 


1. What are some of the health problems of your community? 


a. Tuberculosis 
b. Infant death. 
ce. Social diseases. 


What are the facilities for handling of health conditions of colored 
people in your community? 

What interest is manifested by the health authorities of your local 
government in health of the Negro population? 

To what extent do agencies that carry health educational campaigns 
include the colored people? 

What hospital and clinical facilities are open to colored people? 

What share do Negro citizens have in the Public Health Nursing 


Service? 


An PB oo 


IN PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON HOUSING AND RACE RELATIONS 


1. What are the conditions of sanitation in the Negro neighborhoods of 
your community? 


In what ways do Negroes themselves affect interracial attitudes on 
housing? | 

What are some of the Negro’s difficulties in trying to obtain mortgage 
money? 


Difficulties in renting and buying property? 

What efforts are being made, and what further efforts are possible to 
improve housing conditions for Negroes? 

What efforts are being made for better housing? 


Oo PR w 


IN PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON INDUSTRY AND RACE RELATIONS 


1. What are the proportions of white and colored workers in the total 
wage earning population of your community ? 

2. What are the proportions of white and colored workers in the prin- 
cipal occupations in which colored workers are employed in your 
community ? 

3. Can you give instances of new occupations opened to colored workers 
in the last few years, describing the circumstances of their opening? 

4, Can you give illustrations of personnel policies in the industries of 
your community with reference to the employment of colored workers? 
Tf so, can you give facts about the results of these policies? 

5. What are your schools doing by way of guiding colored children in the 


choice of their first positions? 


MOTIVES AND METHOD ININTERRACIAL WORK 181 


6. Formulate the two most difficult problems in race relations in industry 
in your community. 

7. Give instances of success in dealing with employment problems of race 
relations in your community which might be of service to other com- 
munities. 

8. What part do Negro workers have in labor organizations? 

9. Secure any other facts which will help you discuss such problems in 
your community. 


IN PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON PUBLICITY AND RACE RELATIONS 


1. In what ways are interracial misunderstandings nurtured, goodwill 
fostered? 
2. How do the following publicity agencies affect race relations?— 


a. The press. b. Motion pictures. c. Fiction. d. Magazines. 


IN PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON CHURCH AND RACE RELATIONS 


1, In what ways are the churches of your community and your denomina- 
tion serving as a medium of interracial understanding? 

2. Do your ministers, unions or associations include white and colored 
members; if not, is there some other interracial contact between 
ministerial organizations? 

3. Have your churches observed Race Relations Sunday? What sugges- 
tions for its improvement would you make? 

4, What are the Sunday Schools doing to foster interracial understand- 
ing and goodwill? 

5. What other practical measures have the churches of your community 
or denomination promoted to increase friendly contact and _ inter- 
racial codperation? What has been the result? 

6. How may the church auxiliaries, young people’s societies, mission 
boards, be used more effectively for interracial understanding? 

7, What has been the experience of your local YMCA and YWCA 
with interracial committees in their work? 


IN PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON BUSINESS AND RACE RELATIONS 


1. Is lack of opportunity for experience in business in your locality a 
barrier to young Negro business men? In what definite ways? Get 
definite cases. 

2. Does race identity relate itself to securing credit? 

3. What is the relation of white business organizations of your community 
to Negro men and women in business? 

4, Are executive and clerical positions in business establishments in your 
community occupied by colored men without racial friction? Could they 


be so occupied? 


IN PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON SOCIAL AGENCIES AND RACE RELATIONS 


Are the social agencies of your community serving as a medium of inter- 
racial codperation through— 


Honest and wise leadership? 

Working WITH instead of FOR Negroes? 

Assisting Negroes to choose their own leadership? 

‘Giving white and Negro workers of a similar rank the same basis 


of remuneration? ae 
Equitable apportionment of positions of trust and responsibility on 


boards and staffs? 
Efforts of a constructive character in securing adjustment of per- 


manent value rather than of palliative almsgiving type. 


2 pete 





182 


TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


IN PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON THE COURTS AND RACE RELATIONS 


PS 


How nearly are the courts in your community giving impartial 
treatment to white and colored people, in 


a. Protection of person and _ property? 
b. Service on juries? 
ce. Matters of arrests, etc. 


What provision is made in your community for juvenile court and 
juvenile probation? How do Negroes share in whatever is provided? 
What legal aid, if any, is given in your community to Negro clients? 
To white clients? 

Does race identity determine chance of citizens to serve on juries? 
Do Negro citizens so serve? 


IN PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON INTERRACIAL MOVEMENT 


What organizations or agencies of interracial type have been devel- 
oped in your community? 

How are members that compose these organizations or agencies chosen? 
What are some of the policies that have been adopted to guide the 
activities of the particular interracial organizations or agencies in 
which you are active? 

Have any of these organizations or agencies written constitutions? If 
so, study them and inquire into the results of their operation. 

What efforts have been made to correlate the organization and activity 
of several organizations or agencies dealing with interracial interests? 
How far are racial or national groups besides white and Negro in- 
cluded in local interracial plans and policies? 


IN PREPARATION FOR DISCUSSION ON SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND RACE 


RELATIONS 


What is the situation in the public schools of your community relative 
to interracial codperation ? 

What use is made of textbooks and library facilities that might in- 
crease each race’s appreciation of the other? 

What friendly contact and codperation has been developed between 
Negro and white college students? 


DELEGATES 


NATIONAL INTERRACIAL CONFERENCE 
CINCINNATI, OHIO, MARCH 25-27, 1925 


Ackley, Ernest L., Vanderbilt University, 111 Kissam Hall, Nashville, Tenn., 
Y. M.C. A. Student Department. 

Adams, Mrs. Will H., Indianapolis, Ind.—Chr. Interracial Committee, 
YW s Gna, 

Alexander, Dr. Will W., 409 Palmer Bldg., Atlanta, Ga.—Commission on 
Interracial Cooperation. 

Allen, Mrs. Bessie L., Louisville, Ky.—Interracial Committee of Kentucky. 

Allen, N. B., 675 E. Long St., Columbus, Ohio—Columbus Urban League. 

Allen, S. A., 119 Camden St., Boston 18, Mass.—Boston Urban League & 
Boston Church Fed. ; 

Anderson, Rev. D. H., Paducah, Ky.—TInterracial Committee of Kentucky. 

Anderson, Rev. D. S., W. Kentucky Industrial College, Paducah, Ky. 

Anderson, Mrs. N. A., 721 W. 5th St., Dayton, Ohio—Interracial Comm. 
Yow. ©. A; 

Anderson, Mrs. T. L., 609 High St., Frankfort, Ky.—Interracial Comm. of 
Kentucky. 

Arnold, Anna M., 134 Clark St., Springfield, Ohio—Secy. Clark St. Y. W. C. A. 

Arthur, George R., Sec’y Wabash Avenue Y. M. C. A., Chicago, Ill. 

Atkins, H. P., Dr., 516 Union Central Building, Cincinnati, Ohio—Church 
Federation of Cincinnati. 

Atkins, Russell C., Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio—Interracial Forum. 

Attwell, Ernest T., 501 So. 16th St., Philadelphia, Pa.—Playground & 
Recre. Asso. of America. 

Atwater, Charleston W., 465 Considine Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio—Fed. of 
Churches. 

Baker, Paul E., 920 17th Ave., N., Nashville, Tenn.—Fisk University. 

Barnes, Miss Dora M.—Commission on the Church and Race Relations, 289 
Fourth Ave., New York City. 

Barr, C. D., American Cast Iron Pipe Co., Birmingham, Ala.—Ala. Interracial 
Committee. 

Barrick, James, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio—Interracial Forum. 

Beamon, Dr. R. E., 438 W. 5th St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Cin. Medical Association. 

Belcher, Miss May B., 601 North West St., Indianapolis, Ind._-Y. W.C. A. 
Interracial Committee. 

Belboder, Rev. J. Samuel, Dayton, Ohio—N. A. A.C. P. 

Bell, W. A., 362 Terry St., Atlanta, Ga.—Committee on Church Cooperation. 

Blinn, Mrs. Chas. L., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Bond, Mrs. Clementine, 140 Elm Street, New Castle, Pa.—Interracial Comm. 
Wee. Ay 

Bond, Dr. James, 214 Pythian Temple, Louisville, Ky.—Interracial Comm. 
of Kentucky. 

Brady, Miss Mabel S., 800 W. Fifth St., Dayton, Ohio—Secy. Interracial 
Comm. Y. W. C. A. 

Brascher, Nahum D., Associated Negro Press, 3423 Indiana Ave., Chicago, Tl. 

Brashares, Charles W., Dayton, Interracial Council, Dayton, Ohio. 

Brent, Mrs. L., 1205 So. Campbell St., Hopkinsville, Ky.—State Inter. 
Commission of Ky. 


* Made by Professor Earle Edward Eubank, Department of Sociology, Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati. 
183 


184 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Bryson, Miss Gladys, National Student Council Y.W.C.A., 600 Lexington 
Avenue, New York City. 

Brown, Rey. R. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Brown, Atty. S. Joe., 515 Mulberry St., Des Moines, Iowa.—Interracial 
Commission. 

Bowles, Miss Eva D., National Board Y. W. C. A., 600 Lexington Ave., New 
York City. 

Borst, H. W., Indianapolis, Ind.—Interracial Commission. 

Burton, Rev. Charles W., Pastor, Lincoln Memorial Congregational Church, 
Chicago, Il1l—Comm. on Interracial Relations of Chicago. 

Butler, Mrs. D. F., 1333 Lincoln Ave., Walnut Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio—Pres. 
City Fed. Women’s Clubs. 

Campbell, Miss M. Edith, 25 E. 9th St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Board of Education. 

Castellini, Mr. J. J., Cincinnati, Ohio—Delegate-at-large. 

Cater, Prof. J. T., Talladega College, Talladega, Ala. 

Chapman, Rev. W. P., 1329 Lincoln Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio—Bapt. Ministers 
Conference. 

Chase, Mr. J. H., 14 E. Rayen Avenue, Youngstown, Ohio—Interracial Com- 
mittee. 

Childs, Rev. P. C., 507 Perry St., Erie, Pa.—Erie Ministerial Association. 

Clarke, Dr. R. E., 623 Cutter St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Cin. Medical Association. 





Clay, Miss , Cincinnati Better Housing League, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Clement, Bishop George C., 1633 Jefferson St., Louisville, Ky.—Race Relations 
Commission. 


Cleaves, Bishop N. C., St. Louis, Mo.—Community Council. 

Corbett, Miss Mildred, National Board Y. W. C. A., Town Department, 600 
Lexington Avenue, New York City. 

Cox, Dr. Gilbert S., Columbus, Ohio—Columbus Urban League. 

Culbreth, Mr. J. Marion, 810 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn.—Board of Educa- 
tion, M. E. Church, So. 

Curry, Rev. E, W. B., Second Baptist Church, Springfield, Ohio—Pres. 
The Curry Institute. 

Dabney, W. P., Cincinnati, Ohio—N. A. A. C. P. 

David, Rev. G. F., Lexington, Ky., Interracial Committee of Ky. 
Davis, Mrs. Estella R., 3046 Gilbert Avenue, W. Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio, 
Federation of Churches, Pres. State Fed. of Colored Women’s Clubs. 
Davis, Miss Helen A., National Board Y.W.C.A., 600 Lexington Avenue, 
New York City. 

Davis, R. H., Cincinnati, Ohio—Church Federation. 

DeFrantz, F. E., Indianapolis, Ind., Interracial Committee Y.M.C. A. 

Derricotte, Miss Juliette, National Board Y. W. C. A., 600 Lexington Ave., New 
York City. 

Dickerson, Spaulding, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio—Interracial 
Forum. 

Dix, Miss Blanche C., Northwestern University, c/o Y. W.C. A.—Evanston, 
Ill.—Natl. Student Council Y. W. C.A. 

Dix, Philo C., 345 Association Bldg., Louisville, Ky., State Interracial Comm. 

Dyer, T. W., Columbus, Ohio—Columbus Council of Churches. 

Eddy, Dr. Sherwood, 347 Madison Avenue, N. Y. C.—Secy. National Council 
Y.M.C. A. 

Edwards, Miss Thyra J., 232 Gary Bldg., Gary, Ind.—Interracial Comm. of 
Gary. 

Wledece! Robert B., 412 Palmer Bldg., Atlanta, Ga.—Comm. on Interracial 
Cooperation. 

Elliott, Mrs. Elizabeth N., Y.W.C.A., 702 W. 8th St., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Emery, John J., 115 E. 4th St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Negro Civic Welfare 
Association. 

Eubank, (Prof.) Earle E., Dept. of Sociology, University of Cincinnati, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 


ate ae 


DELEGATES AND VISITORS 185 


cecrthad, EK. J., 937 2nd Natl. Bk. Bldg., Akron, Ohio—Better Akron Federa- 

ion. 

Feger, Miss H. V., Alpha Kappa Alpha—Omuran Chapter, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Ficken, Rev. R. O., 3744 Glenway Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio—Natl. Council of 
the Cong. Churches. 

Fielding, John 8., Fraternal League, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Fisher, Miss Constance C., 2160 E. 86th St., Cleveland, Ohio—Natl. Student 
Council Y. W. C. A. 

Fitzwater, P. B., 153 Institute Place, Chicago, Ill.—Moody Bible Institute. 

Flack, Rev. P. R., 1958 Catherine St., Detroit, Mich—Mich. Conference, 
A. M. E. Zion Church. 

Foote, Rev. James P., 628 W. 8th St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Fed. of Churches. 

Forte, Mrs. Etta C., 702 W. 8th St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Y. W. C. A. 

Foster, A. L., 809 8th Street S. E., Canton, Ohio. 

Fouse, Mrs. W. H., 219 N. Upper St., Lexington, Ky. 

Fowler, W. H. (Rev.), 85-16th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio—Interracial Forum, 
Ohio State University. 

Fowler, Mrs. Wilbur, 85-16th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio—Kappa Phi, Methodist 
Club, Ohio State Univ. 

Frazier, E. Franklin, 36 Chestnut St., Atlanta, Ga.—Atlanta School of 
Social Work. 

Freeman, Mrs. J. H., Delaware, Ohio—Woman’s Home Missionary Society, 
M. E. Church. 

Frey, John P., Box 699, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Frye, Mrs. Curtis Wm., 304 N. 4th St., Newark, Ohio—Presbyterian Church. 

Gates, Miss Louise, Y. W.C. A., Toledo, Ohio. 

Gilbert, Mrs. Levi, 420 Plum St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Woman’s Home Mis- 
sionary Society, M. E. Church. 

Ginberg, Harris, 4th and Plum St., Cincinnati Model Homes Co., Cincinnati, 
Ohio. 

Glenn, John M., Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. 

Goode, Mrs. W. H. C., Sidney, Ohio. 

Gordon, Mrs. Lena Trent, Public Welfare Department, Philadelphia, Pa.— 
Interracial Committee. 

Greene, Mr. Cyrus T., Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co., E. Pittsburgh, Pa.— 
Employment Dept. 

Green, J. A., Fifth St. Branch Y.M.C.A., Dayton, Ohio. 

Griffith, Mrs. J. A., 1505 Race St., Philadelphia, Pa.—Interracial Committee. 

Groves, Miss Josephine A., Bethlehem Center, Nashville, Tenn.—Nashville 
Student Forum. 

Hager, Judge J., Ashland, Ky.—Interracial Committee. 

Harris, Rev. E. G., 1626 W. Chestnut St., Louisville, Ky. 

Harris, Mrs. Lydia, 241 Bunton Avenue, Springfield, Ohio—Y. W.C. A. 

Hartzell, Bishop J. C., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Haynes, Dr. George E., Commission on the Church and Race Relations, 105 
E, 22nd St., New York. 

Herod, Rev. S. Henry, 2738 Boulevard Place, Indianapolis, Ind.—Interracial 
Comm. 

Hirsch, Max, Cincinnati, Ohio—Delegate-at-large. 

Holloway, Miss Mary K., Cincinnati, Ohio—Delta Sigma Theta Natl. 
Association. 
Hope, Miss Anna, Y.W.C.A., 248 Belmont Avenue, Youngstown, Ohio— 

Interracial Comm. 

Hope, Pres. John, Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga. 
Howell, Miss Bertha B., 2221 Locust St., St. Louis, Mo.—Community Council 
of St. Louis. : 
Howsare, Mrs. Athella M., 1535 N. Euclid St., Dayton, Ohio—Interracial 

Council. 
Hungerford, Arthur E., 809 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Md.—Federal Council. 


186 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Hunt, Mrs. H. A., High & Industrial School, Fort Valley, Ga.—Woman’s 
Aux. to Natl. Council of the P. E. Church. 

Hutcherson, W. L., Wichita, Kansas—Council of Churches. 

Ideson, Miss Ethel, Negro Civie Welfare Association, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Ingraham, Rev. L. H., Federation of Churches, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Isom, Rev. Charles T., 106 Lexington Ave., Columbus, Ohio.—Ohio Baptist 
General Association. 

Jackson, Rev. A. W., 636 W. 9th St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Fed. of Churches. 

James, C. H., Charleston, W. Va. 

Jernagin, Rev. W. H., Washington, D. C.—National Race Congress. 

Jetton, Atty. J. P., Dayton, Ohio—Interracial Council. 

Johnson, C. H., Wilberforce, Ohio—Laymen’s Movement of the A. M. BE. 
Church. 

Johnson, Charles L., Center St. Y.M.C. A.—Springfield, Ohio. 

Johnson, Sully, 962 W. Federal St., Youngstown, Ohio—Interracia] Comm. 

Johnston, Miss Emogene, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio—Interracial 
Forum. 

Johnston, Miss Esther, Carnegie Tech., Pittsburg, Pa.—Natl. Student Council 
Y. W.C. A. : 

Jones, G. H. (Pres. Wilberforce University), Wilberforce, Ohio. 

Jones, Mrs. Ada, Springfield, Ohio. 

Jones, David D., 409 Palmer Bldg., Atlanta, Ga.—TInterracial Commission. 

Jones, Mrs. T. D., 1024 EB. McMillan Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio—Woman’s Home 
Miss. Soc. M. E. Church. 

Keller, Dr. William S., Pres. Cin. Social Hygiene Society, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Kingsley, Rev. Harold M., 2225 E. 93rd St., Cleveland, Ohio—Cong. Home 
Missionary Society, New York. 

Kleinschmidt, Dr. H. E., Toledo Public Health Ass’n, Toledo, Ohio. 

Lawson, Miss Isobel C., 702 W. 8th St., Y. W.C. A., Cincinnati, Ohio—Alpha 
Kappa Alpha Sorority. 

Lawson, Mrs. Lula E., Y. W.C. A., 3541 Indiana Avenue, Chicago, III. 

Lee, Charles O., Flanner House, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Lee, Mrs. Charles O., 802 N. West St., Indianapolis, Ind. 

Leigh, James W., Springfield, Ohio. Y.M.C. A. 

Leiper, Rev. Henry Smith, 287 4th Ave., New York City—Amer. Missionary 
Association. 

Lewis, Grant K., 425 DeBaliviere Ave., St. Louis, Mo.—United Christian 
Miss. Society (Disciples of Christ). 

Littel, Miss Frances, Oberlin College—Shurtleff Cottage, Oberlin, Ohio. 

Locust, Rev. F. C., Covington, Ky.—Interracial Comm. of Kentucky. 

McGranahan, Dr. R. W., 209 9th St., Pittsburg, Pa. 

McKim, Judson J., General Secy. Y.M.C.A., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

McWilliams, Rev. B. F., Toledo, Ohio—Toledo Council of Churches. 

Maloney, Prof. A. H., Wilberforce, Ohio—Y. M. C. A. Wilberforce University. 

Manuel, Harley, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio—Interracial Forum. 

Marquette, Bleecker, 25 E. 9th St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Better Housing League. 

Martin, Alexander H. (Atty.), 2392 E. 40th St., 529 Erie Bldg., Cleveland, 
Ohio—Church Fed. 

Martin, Dr. Arba, Federation of Churches, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Marx, Mrs. August, 3280 Observatory Rd., Cincinnati, Ohio—Y. W. C. A. 

Matthews, Miss Elizabeth, Cincinnati, Ohio—Woman’s Aux. Natl. Council 
Episcopal Church. 

Mayer, A. L. 

Miller, Dr. Herbert A., Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio—Urban 
League. 

Mount, Mr.—Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 

you Miss Sarah, Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn.—Nat]. Student Council 

.W.C.A. 
Nelson, Dr. W. T., Cincinnati, Ohio—Y. M. C0. A. 


DELEGATES AND VISITORS 187 


Nichols, Franklin O., 370 Seventh Ave., New York City—Amer. Social 
Hygiene Association. 

Nolcox, Matthias, School 26, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Norcom, Mrs. Josephine M., Y.W.C.A., 702 W. 8th St., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Orton, Rev. W. C., 1820 W. Chestnut St., Louisville, Ky. 

Owen, Chandler, 2305 7th Ave., New York City—The Messenger Press. 

Oxley, Dr. Edward N., Cincinnati, Ohio—Christian Social Service of Epis. 
Church. 

Paine, Rev. George L., 4 Park St., Boston, Mass.—Boston Fed. of 
Churches. 

Parrish, Dr. C. H., Simmons University, Louisville, Ky.—Interracial Com- 
mittee. 

Paul, Tom D., University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.—Y.M.C. A. 

Peters, Dr William H., Health Commissioner, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Phillips, Bishop C. H., Cleveland, Ohio—C. M. E. Church. 

Pius, Rev. J. B., 229 N. 17th St., Columbus, Ohio—Delegate-at-large. 

Plaskett, Rev. G. M., Church of the Epiphany, Orange, N. J.—Dept. Christian 
Social Service, Epis. Church. 

Porter, Miss Jennie D., H. B. Stowe School, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Pronko, Stephen, Youngstown, Ohio—Interracial Committee. 

Ridley, Lendell Charles, Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio. 

Robinson, James H., 520 W. Fifth St., Cincinnati—Negro Civic Welfare 
Asso. Council of Social Agencies. 

Robinson, Rev. J. W., 458 Water St., Clarksburg, W. Va.—Community 
Service of Clarksburg. 

Roman, Dr. C. V., 13803 Church St., Nashville, Tenn. 

Ross, Dr. B. A., Dayton, Ohio—Interracial Council. 

Ross, Miss Martha Hall, Douglass School, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Russack, 8S. J., St. Louis, Mo.—Community Council. 

Routzahn, E. G., 130 E. 22nd St., N. Y. C.—Director, Division of Publicity, 
Russell Sage Foundation. 

Ryan, Miss, Cincinnati, Ohio—Vocational Bureau. 

Smith, Mrs. Henry Francis, 14 Beacon St., Boston, Mass.—Cong. Woman’s 
Home Miss. Federation. 

Smith, Kirke, Lincoln Ridge, Louisville, Ky. 

Smith, Mrs. T. J., 830 W. 5th St., Dayton, Ohio—Interracial Committee, 
Y. W. C. A. 

Smith, Woodford, S., 209 So. Center St., Springfield, Ohio—Center St. 
Wem CA: 

Sneed, Mrs. Lavinia B., 818 So. 6th St., Louisville, Ky. 

Sanders, H. L., 218 Indiana Avenue, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Steeper, H. T., Prin. West High School, Des Moines, Iowa—Interracial 
Commission. 

Steele, Edward, Fraternal League, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Steinmetz, Clyde, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio Y. M.C. A. 

Steward, Mrs. Mamie E., 621 E. 8th St., Louisville, Ky.—Interracial Com- 
mittee. 

Steward, W. H., 621 So. 8th St., Louisville, Ky.—Editor, American Baptist. 

Sudduth, H., Y.M.C.A., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Swartz, Rev. Charles B., 4108 Grand Boulevard, Chicago, Ill—Comm. on 
Interracial Relations. 

Tawney, Mrs. Guy, Cincinnati, Ohio-—Fed. of Churches. : 

Taylor, Dr. Alva W., 821 Occidental Bldg., Indianapolis, Ind.—Interracial 
Commission. 

Thomas, Jesse O., 200 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta, Ga.—Urban League. 

Thompson, George W., 328 Arch St., Akron, Ohio—Better Akron Federation. 

Thomson, Rev. A. E., Lincoln Ridge, Ky.—Interracial Comm. of Ky. 

Timberlake, Rev. T., 1023 W. Madison St., Louisville, Ky.—Genl. Missionary 
and Cor. Secy. General Asso. of Ky. Baptists. 


188 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Turner, Miss Angie, West Virginia Collegiate Institute, Institute, W. Va.— 
Natl. Student Council, Y. W.C. A. 

Van Kleeck, Miss Mary, Russell Sage Foundation, 130 E. 22nd St., New 
York City. 

Vanvoorhis, Mrs. T., Oxford, Ohio. 

Walker, D. H., 912 W. Liberty St., Springfield, Ohio. 

Walls, Bishop W. J., Charlotte, N. C.—Delegate-at-large. 

Ward, C. W., Springfield, Ohio.—Y. M. GC. A. 

Wareing, E. D., Editor, Western Christian Advocate, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Warner, Miss Elizabeth, Y. W.C. A., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Washington, Mr. Forrester B., 1434 Lombard St., Philadelphia, Pa.—TInter- 
racial Committee—Armstrong Association. 

Waters, Mrs. Minnie Moore, 1338 Lincoln Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Watkins, Dr. 8. J., Covington, Ky.—Interracial Committee. 

Webb, Miss Elizabeth, So. Division Student Council, Y. W.C. A., Shelby, N. C. 

Weber, Miss Matilda C., 1412 U. B. Bldg., Dayton, Ohio—Women’s Missionary 
Association of the United Brethren in Christ. 

Wells, Rev. B. Clayton, 1626 N. Holyoke Ave., Wichita, Kans.—Council of 
Churches. ; 

Weston, Dr. W. J., 424 So. 8th St, Paducah, Ky.—State Interracial Com- 
mittee. 

White, Mrs. J. O., Cincinnati, Ohio—Y. W. C. A. 

White, Prof. George N., Burrell Normal School, Florence, Ala.—Amer. Mis- 
sionary Association. 

Whitman, R. C., Springfield, Ohio—Y. M.C. A. 

Willette, Miss Myrtle D., 641 W. 4th St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Woman’s Mis- 
sionary Soc. of M. E. Church. 

Williams, Miss Frances, National Board Y.W.C. A., 600 Lexington Ave., 
New York City. 

William, L. C., Columbus, Ohio. 

Wilson, Mrs. H. A., Federation of Churches (Woman’s Dept.), Cincinnati, 
Ohio. 

Winsborough, Mrs. W. C., St. Louis, Mo.—Presbyterian Church of the U. S. 

Woodruff, Mrs. May Leonard, Allendale, N. J.—Woman’s Home Miss. Soe. of 
the M. E. Church. 

Woofter, Dr. T. J., Jr., 412 Palmer Bldg., Atlanta, Ga.—Ga. Interracial 
Commission. 

Work, Prof. Monroe N., Tuskegee Institute, Ala. 

Young, Miss Laura H., Y. W.C. A., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Yarbrough, Miss Hileen, Associated Charities, Cincinnati, Ohio. 


VISITORS 


Briscoe, Miss Louise, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio—Interracial 
Club, Student Movement. 

Burbridge, Miss Mary C., 705 Barr St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Student of As- 
sociated Charities. 

Busch, Mrs. Ella, 3255 Gaff Ave., W. Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio—Vol. Worker 
with Asso. Charities. 

Caldwell, Miss Ruth, 304 Broadway, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Crook, Rev. John W., 635 So. Center St., Springfield, Ohio. 

Duncan, A. E., 305 Longworth St., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Floyd, Rev. G. W., 310 W. 15th St., Connersville, Ind. 

Gray, Rev. L. W., 1226 Myrtle Ave., W. Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Greene, Verna Parker, 304 Broadway, Cincinnati, Ohio—Associated Charities. 

Haithcox, Rev. J. C., Cincinnati, Ohio—Inter-Denominational Association. 

Herget, Rev. John F., Ninth St. Baptist Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Hicks, Miss Mary L., Public Health Fed., 25 E. 9th St., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

McClain, Mrs. Alice E., 912 W. 7th St., Cincinnati, Ohio. 


on a ae hy Le ae oe ee ee 


PROGRAM AND COMMITTEES 189 


Mitchell, L. R., 520 W. Spring St., Lima, Ohio. 

Neilson, Miss Louise, 325 Broadway, Cincinnati, Ohio. (Social Worker). 

Ramseur, Miss Essie, 853 Hathaway St., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Smith, Mrs. Laura L., 750 W. 7th St., Cincinnati, Ohio—Associated Charities. 

Smith, Rev. B. F., Park St. M. E. Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Speedy, Mrs. Nettie George, 4824 Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Ill—Feature 
Writer Chicago Defender. 

Steele, Mrs. Katie C., 2126 Auburn Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio—Vol. Visitor 
Associated Charities. 

Walker, Rev. J. Franklin, Pastor, Metropolitan Baptist Church, 3240 Beres- 
ford Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Williams, Rev. W. H., Pres. Cincinnati Bap. Ministers Conf., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Woode, Miss Adella M., State Public Health Nurse, Cincinnati, Ohio. 


PROGRAM 
OF THE 
NATIONAL INTERRACIAL CONFERENCE, CINCINNATI, OHI0, Marcu 25-27, 1925 


Honorary Chairman—Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, President, Federal Council of 
Churches—Dr. M. Ashby Jones,.Chairman Commission Interracial Coopera- 
tion—Bishop George C. Clement, Chairman Commission on the Church 
and Race Relations. ; 

George E. Haynes, Secretary, Commission on the Church and Race Relations, 
Federal Council of Churches. 

Will W. Alexander, Director, Commission on Interracial Codperation. 

Mr. Max Hirsch, Chairman Executive Committee of Conference. 

Prof. Monroe N. Work, Statistician of Conference. 


Presiding: Bishop George C. Clement, Louisville, Ky. 
:30—Singing. 
Opening Prayer: Rev. R. E. Scully, Goodwill M. E. Church. 
:45—Statement of Aims of the Conference. 
:00—Report on Committees. 
:15—Topic: Publicity and Race Relations: 
Open Forum Discussion. 
Mr. E. G. Routzahn, Director, Division of Publicity, Russell 
‘ Sage Foundation, Chairman of Discussion Committee. 
8:45—Address (During deliberation of Discussion Committee) : 
Mr. Arthur E. Hungerford, Publicity Director, Federal Council 
of Churches. 
9:05—Report of Discussion Committee and Open Forum Discussion con- 
tinued. 
9:45—Adjournment. 


womon “I 


THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 9:00 A.M. 


Presiding: Miss M. Edith Campbell, Director of Vocation Bureau, 
Board of Education, Cincinnati. 
Opening Prayer: Rev. W. H. Williams, President, Cincinnati Baptist 
Ministers’. Conference. 
Summary of preceding discussion. 
9:10—Topic: Health and Race Relations: 
Open Forum Discussion. 
Mr. Franklin O. Nichols, Associate Educational Director, Ameri- 
can Social Hygiene Association, Chairman, Discussion Com- 
mittee. 


190 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


10: 


10:20—-Report of Discussion Committee—Discussion Continued. 


:00—Topic: Housing and Race Relations: 


11 


11 


11 
12 


00—Address: Dr. William H. Peters, Health Commissioner, Cincinnati. 
(During deliberation of Discussion Committee.) 


Open Forum Discussion. 
Mr. Forrester B. Washington, Executive Secretary, Armstrong 
Association, Philadelphia, Chairman of Discussion Committee. 


:35—Address: 
Mr. Bleecker Marquette, Secretary, Cincinnati Better Housing 
League. ' 
(During deliberation of Discussion Committee.) 
:55—Report of Discussion Committee—Discussion Continued. 


:35—Adjournment. 


THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2:00 P.M. 


Presiding: Miss Mary Van Kleeck, Director, Division of Industrial 
Studies, Russell Sage Foundation. 


Opening Prayer: Rev. B. F. Smith, Park St. M. E. Church. 


:00—Summary of preceding discussions. 


Topic: Growth of the Interracial Movement: 
Open Forum Discussion. 
Dr. James Bond, Director, Kentucky Interracial Commission, 
Chairman of Discussion Committee. 
1. Methods of Organization. 
2. Policies: Local and National. 
Leaders of Discussion: Miss Gladys Bryson, Miss Eva Bowles, 
Secretaries, National Board, Y.W.C.A., Dr. Will W. Alex- 
ander, Mr. P. C. Dix. 


:35—Address: 


Dr. Herbert A. Miller, Professor of Sociology, Ohio State Uni- 
versity, Columbus. 
(During deliberation of Discussion Committee.) 


:05—Report of Discussion Committee—Discussion Continued. 
:45—Topic: Social Agencies and Race Relations: 


Open Forum Discussion. 


Dr. T. J. Woofter, Jr., Secretary, Georgia Commission on Inter- 
racial Codperation, Chairman of Discussion Committee. 


:15—Address: 
Mr. James H. Robinson, Cincinnati, Ohio, Executive Secretary, 
Negro Civic Welfare Association, Department of Council of 
Social Agencies. 
(During deliberation of Discussion Committee.) 
:35—Report of Discussion Committee—Discussion Continued. 


: 15—Adjournment. 


THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 7:00 P.M. 


Presiding: Rev. W. T. Paterson, D.D., Moderator-elect, Presbytery 
of Cincinnati. 


:00—Opening Prayer: Rev. E. H. Oxley, St. Andrews Episcopal Church. 


Summary of Preceding Discussion. 


:10—Topic: The Church and Race Relations: 


Open Forum Discussion. 
Mr. Judson J. McKim, Genl. Secy. Y. M. 0. A., Cincinnati, Ohio. 


:40—Address: 
Dr. Alva W. Taylor, Secretary, Board of Temperance and 
Social Welfare, Church of Christ (Disciples), Indianapolis, 
Ind. 
(During deliberation of Discussion Committee.) 
:00—Report of Discussion Committee—Discussion Continued. 


© 


10: 


10 
11 


wow mo Nd 


PROGRAM AND COMMITTEES 191 


PUBLIC PLATFORM MEETING 


(Arranged by Negro Civic Welfare Association, Dept. Council of 
Social Agencies, Cincinnati.) 
Presiding: Mr. Philo C. Dix, State Secretary, Y. M.C. A. of Kentucky, 
pease Chairman, Kentucky Commission on Interracial Codperation. 
inging. 
Prayer: Rev. John F. Herget, Ninth Street Baptist Church. 
Address: Dr. Alva W. ‘taylor, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Music: “Pilgrim Chorus” from Tannhiuser (Wagner) : 
N. W. Ryder, Cincinnati Community Service. 
Address: Dr. C. V. Roman, Lecturer on Public Health, Fisk Uni- 
versity and Meharry Medical College. 
Music: Selected. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 9:00 A. M. 


Presiding: Bishop C. H. Phillips, Cleveland, Ohio. 
Opening Prayer: Rev. S. E. Grannan, Mt. Zion M. E. Church. 


:15—Summary of Preceding Discussion. 
:25—Topic: Industry and Race Relations: 


Open Forum Discussion. 
Miss Mary Van Kleeck, Chairman of Discussion Committee. 
Leaders of Discussion: Mrs. Elizabeth Elliott, Y. W.C. A., Cincinnatt; 
Cyrus T. Greene, Westinghouse Electric Co., Pittsburg, Pa. 
20—Address: 
Mr. Forrester B. Washington, Executive Secretary, Armstrong 
Assn., Philadelphia, Pa. 
(During deliberation of Discussion Committee.) 


:50—Report of Discussion Committee—Discussion Continued. 
:45—Business Session. 
12: 


15—Adjournment. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2:00 P.M. 


Presiding: Dr. Gilbert H. Jones, Pres. Wilberforce University, Wilber- 
foree, Ohio. 
Opening Prayer. 


:00—Report of Preceding Discussion. 
:10—Topic: The Courts and Race Relations: 


Open Forum Discussion. 


:45—Address: Judge John F. Aager, Ashland, Kentucky. 


(During deliberation of Discussion Committee.) 


:05—Report of Discussion Committee—Discussion Continued. 
:30—Topic: Schools and Colleges and Race Relations: 


Open Forum Discussion. 
Earle E. Eubank, Professor Sociology, University of Cincinnati, 
Chairman of Discussion Committee. 


:00—Address: 
President John Hope, Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga, 
(During deliberation of Discussion Committee.) 
:20—Report of Discussion Committee—Discussion Continued. 


:00—Adjournment. 


FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 7:30 P.M. 


PUBLIC MASS MEETING 


(Arranged by Cincinnati Federation of Churches.) 
Presiding: Bishop George C. Clement. 

Singing. 

Prayer. 


192 TOWARD INTERRACIAL COOPERATION 


Address: Dr. Will W. Alexander, Director, Commission on Interracial 
Coodperation, Atlanta, Ga. 

Address: Dr. George E. Haynes, Secretary, Commission on the Church 
and Race Relations, Federal Council of Churches, New York. 

Singing. 

Address: Dr. Sherwood Eddy, Secretary, National Council, Young 
Men’s Christian Association. 


CONFERENCE COMMITTEES 


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON CONFERENCE. Max Hirsch, Cineinnati, Ohio, Chatr- 
man; J. H. Robinson, Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. H. P. Atkins, Cincinnati, 
Qhio, ex-officio; Bishop George C. Clement, Louisville, Ky.; Dr. George 
EK. Haynes, New York City; Dr. W. W. Alexander, Atlanta, Ga.; W. P. 
Dabney, Cincinnati, Ohio; Miss M. Edith Campbell, Cincinnati, Ohio; Dr. 
R. P. McClain, Cincinnati, Ohio; Mrs. Guy Tawney, Cincinnati, Ohio; 
Jesse O. Thomas, Atlanta, Ga. 

CuHuRCcH AND RAcE RELATIONS. Judson J. McKim, Cincinnati, Ohio, Chairman; 
Dr. A. M. Townsend, Nashville, Tenn.; Bishop W. J. Walls, Charlotte, 
N. C.; Rev. Charies N. Lathrop, New York City; Mrs. John Ferguson, 
New York City; Mrs. J. W. Downs, Nashville, Tenn.; Mrs. Charles A. 
Blinn, Cincinnati, Ohio; Rev. George M. Plaskett, Orange, N. J. 

Housing AND RAcE RELATIONS. Forrester B. Washington, Philadelphia, Pa., 
Chairman; N. B. Allen, Columbus, Ohio; Harris Ginberg, Cincinnati, 
Ohio; J. B. Pius, Columbus, Ohio; Horace Sudduth, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

PUBLICITY AND Race RELATIONS. E. G. Routzahn, New York, Chairman; 
R. B. Eleazer, Atlanta, Ga.; Nahum D. Brascher, Chicago, Ill.; William 
N. Jones, Baltimore, Md. 

HEALTH AND RAce Renatrons. Franklin O. Nichols, New York, Chairman; 
Dr. H. E. Kleinschmidt, Toledo, Ohio; R. E. Beamon, Cincinnati, Ohio; 
R. E. Clarke, Cincinnati, Ohio; Dr. William H. Peters, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

ScHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND Race RewatTions. Prof. Earle E. Eubank, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, Chairman; Jennie Porter, Cincinnati, Ohio; F. M. 
Russell, Cincinnati, Ohio; John A. Green, Dayton, Ohio; Sarah Neblett, 
Nashville, Tenn.; Blanche Dix, Evanston, Ill.; Ernest Ackley, Nashville, 
Tenn.; H. S. Manuel, Columbus, Ohio; R. W. McGranahan, Pittsburg, Pa.; 
H. T. Steeper, Des Moines, Iowa. 

InpustRY AND Race Revations. Miss Mary Van Kleek, New York, Chair- 
man; Forrester B. Washington, Philadelphia, Pa.; Miss M. Edith Campbell, 
Cincinnati, Ohio; C. D. Barr, Birmingham, Ala.; John P. Frey, Cincin- 
nati, Ohio; Mrs. Josephine M. Norcom, Cincinnati, Ohio; Cyrus T. Greene, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 

Courts AND Race Revations. Rev. Gilbert S. Cox, Columbus, Ohio, 
Chairman; Judge John F. Hager, Ashland, Ky.; A. Lee Beatty, Cin- 
einnati, Ohio; Dr. Charles W. Burton, Chicago, Ill.; Alexander H. 
Martin, Cleveland, Ohio; D. H. Walker, Springfield, Ohio. 

SoclAL AGENCIES AND RAcE RELATIONS. T. J. Woofter, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., 
Chairman; Charles O. Lee, Indianapolis, Ind.; Mrs. Lena Trent Gordon, 
Philadelphia, Pa.; George R. Arthur, Chicago, Ill.; John H. Chase, Youngs- 
town, Ohio. 

GrowtH oF INTERRACIAL MoveMENT. Dr. James Bond, Louisville, Ky., 
Chairman; Dr. Charles B. Swartz, Chicago, Ill.; S. Joe Brown, Des Moines, 
Iowa; George E. Haynes, New York City; W. W. Alexander, Atlanta, Ga. 

EprrortAL CoMMITTEE: Miss Mary Van Kleeck, Chairman; E. G. Routzahn, 
Forrester B. Washington, R. W. McGranahan, Will W. Alexander, W. J. 


Walls, George E. Haynes, B. F. McWilliams. 


THE END 


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